Fighting With Fire: No Escape
by Buckhunter The Race Horse
Summary: "'Very well! The tributes from District Twelve: Katniss Everdeen and Haymitch Abernathy.' She rests her hand on my shoulder and gives me a slight shake before removing it and looking straight again." AU where Haymitch is able to volunteer for Peeta and goes into the arena of the 75th Hunger Games with Katniss. Haymitch POV. SEQUEL COMING SOON!
1. The Reaping

**A/N: I've recently been reading and watching the Hunger Games again and wondered what would have happened had Peeta been reaped and Haymitch volunteered. So, here's my take. From Haymitch's point of view, rather than Katniss'.**

**OptimusPrime2017 presents to you,**

**A Hunger Games Fanfiction:**

**No Escape**

**Chapter 1:**

We kept quiet as we were lead to the Square, each of the three of us in between two Peacekeepers. I still found it hard to believe that these Games were of the past Victors. I tried to glance at Katniss around Peeta, but it was a pointless attempt. I pitied her; she was going back into the arena, whether she wanted to or not- obviously not.

I thought back to the deal I had made with her. If Peeta's name was drawn from the bowl by Effie, I would volunteer. That's what I'd promised. Yet fear kept settling back into my mind, the memories of the last Quarter Quell- my games- flying back. Unfortunately I'd been forced by the younger tributes and Effie to stay sober. But the memories made me doubt that I would volunteer to take Peeta's place.

We reached the Square of District Twelve, walking through the pathway made by the other folks of the district. We were escorted up onto the stage, Peeta and I to Effie's right, Katniss to her left.

Effie gave a pathetic attempt to sound cheery as she began the Reaping. "Welcome, welcome. As we celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary and third Quarter Quell of the Hunger Games. As always, ladies first." She glanced at Katniss as she made her way to the glass bowl that contained a single paper in it. She pulled it out and frowned, unfolding it as she walked back to the microphone. "The female tribute from District Twelve: Katniss Everdeen."

I could've sworn, that from across the stage, I could see a tear go down the young woman's cheek. _She doesn't deserve this...None of us do. _But I knew that there was nothing that could be done about it; The Games weren't a choice. Once chosen, you had to enter the arena. I swallowed, thinking hard. Soon Effie would choose either me or Peeta, and I had to be ready to make a choice. The memories flashed through my head again. I remembered holding my intestines in as I collapsed and an axe flew over my head, then coming back and hitting home in the other tribute's own head. My teeth clenched unconsciously. _You promised her. _

Katniss turned towards Effie, who held out an arm. She walked over to the older woman, turning once again to face the crowd. "Wonderful!" Effie exclaimed with false happiness. She cleared her throat. "And now for the male."

Katniss turned her head and looked at me. I knew what I had to do. It might destroy what little sanity that I have left, but I have to do it. I compose myself and give her a confident, reassuring nod, before blinking and looking forward again. _You have to do it. You will do it._

Effie reached into the second glass bowl upon reaching it, pulling out a folded sheet of paper. She unfolded it and walked back to the microphone. "The male tribute from District Twelve: Peeta Mellark."

I saw the look of satisfaction on his face that he would be there for her in the arena. I almost pity him as I clear my throat. "I volunteer as tribute."

"_What?_" Peeta's shocked, mouth hanging agape. "Haymitch-"

I shake my head at him and hope he remembers the plan to get Katniss out alive. "Nothing changes."

_What did you just do? _I walked past him, confidently, stopping beside a bewildered Effie. I nod to her to go on and end the Reaping.

She composes herself, looking towards the rest of District Twelve and nodding as well. "Very well! The tributes from District Twelve: Katniss Everdeen and Haymitch Abernathy." She rests her hand on my shoulder and gives me a slight shake before removing it and looking straight again. "Well, all that remains is…"

Effie trailed off as all of District Twelve, starting from Katniss' family, held up three fingers. Then, after a moment, I do the same and Katniss also follows on with it. All is silent as this happens. Peacekeepers come from behind us and grab our arms to lead us away. I hear young Primrose cry out after her sister. Effie tried to protest, stuttering over her words.

"I get to say goodbye…" Katniss told the Peacekeeper leading her away.

"New plan: Straight to the train." Thread responded gruffly.

"No…" My fellow tribute looked longingly towards the crowd, despite being pulled the complete other way. I can hear the desperation in her voice. "I have to say goodbye."

"Katniss!" Primrose cries.

"Goodbye!" She shouts back in a strained voice as she's pulled through the doors and out of view of the crowd.

I'm guided along after her, though I pull my arm free. I know the route, I've only done this twenty-four other times. I hear Effie and Peeta following us and my thoughts turn to the boy. He's the mentor now. It takes me not even a moment to know that he's not had the experience with dealing with getting sponsors. After another few seconds, I remember that he's nice and generally good with people anyway. It should be easier for him than it ever was for me.

We make a right turn and go down some stairs, entering fresh air again. We're lead to the vehicle waiting for us. I scoot into the back seat first, Katniss getting in after. We even manage to squeeze Peeta in here with us, but there's no room to move. The back seat was only made for two people. Effie sits up front in the passenger seat, next to the Peacekeeper transporting us to the train.

We are driven through District Twelve, the vehicle occassionally bumping and smashing us against one another even more, usually resulting in me cursing. I look out the window, watching the familiar buildings flash by. This might very well be my last time here in Twelve. I was taken from home once. I survived. I came back. Against all odds, I'd managed to outlast forty-seven others. And now I'm leaving again. After my Games and last year's, the chances of surviving for either Katniss and I are very, very slim. I'd be surprised if either of us made it down to the top five.

All I know is that President Snow is _angry_; tired of being outsmarted and played by the tributes of District Twelve. They wouldn't let it happen again, that's for certain.

Before I know it, I see the train sitting at the station and we're being forced out of the vehicle. My legs shake, but not from being crammed in. I was _scared_. I was heading back to the Capitol; not to watch tributes die, but _to die_. _Get ahold of yourself, Haymitch. If they see you like this, they'll give up hope. _That forced my legs to obey rather than give out. I solemnly look down, having no reason nor feeling the pride to hold it up high. Once, I may have been proud to volunteer for my death; once I may have been proud to keep a promise that involved saving someone else. But not anymore. Any pride I used to have is gone. What was there to be proud of? Dying? Stupid. Representing and hoping for an already lost cause? Yeah, right.

All I feel now is resentment. I have no hope; there _is _no hope. We have a cause, but no hope to back it. Hope drives causes onward, keeps them moving. Hope fulfills those causes. But without it...certain failure. I know that there's nothing that I can do to stop the Games. I can try; we all can. But the Capitol won't have it, especially not from District Twelve. They've had enough of out wit. They just want to end us before we prove that killing people is unjust. If the other Districts see and realize that it's wrong, they'll rise up and fight back. It's exactly what the Capitol doesn't want. _Prove that killing people is unjust. _A small flash of hope sparks inside of me. _That's what we need to do!_

I board the train first, followed by Katniss, Peeta, and then Effie. I head for the liquor car, needing to settle my mind, even if it didn't drown _everything _out. I enter said car and examine the bottles, searching for something that sounded interesting. The train starts moving. As I'm deciding whether to choose Scotch or beer, I hear the door slide open behind me. I turn to see her. Katniss.

She walks up and hugs me. "Thank you, Haymitch."

I awkwardly pat her back. "I made a promise and I'm keeping it."

"Just don't die in there because of me." She demands quietly.

I laugh not because it's funny, but because there's only one reality in the Games, and it's harsh. "We can't both survive. We both know that. The Capitol won't make the same mistake again." I pause for a moment. "It has to be you."

"Don't say that." Katniss releases me and pulls back, her familiar stubborn look in her features. "We'll find a way to both get out. And then neither of the three of us will be part of the Games again. Except mentoring…"

I shake my head. "I don't _want _to survive again. All it ever brought me was pain." I choose the Scotch, grabbing it.

"I watched your Games the other day." She admits. "How did you survive?"

"Trust me, I would've died if the Capitol had slightly less developed technology." I tell her. "Sometimes I can feel the pain like it's a fresh wound still."

"Did they do anything after?" She questioned. "You outsmarted them badly."

I uncork the bottle in my hand and take a sip. "Oh, they did alright."

"What'd they do?"

"What's the most important thing to anyone?"

"Their family." Katniss tilted her head, taking another second to realize what happened. Horror filled her eyes and her jaw dropped open. "They didn't…"

"They did." I say. "Public execution. I gave Snow my word that I'd do as I was told, but he did it anyway, to keep me in line." I pause. "Then you came along. You are so much like I was. You gave me a new hope after watching so many tributes from our District die. I knew that I'd help you out in the Games, no matter what it took. Help you to not make the same mistake I did." Another pause. I take a sip of the Scotch. "The reason I drink is to help me forget watching my mother, brother, and girlfriend die."

She hugs me again, but I feel more sympathy for her having to hear this than for myself. "You're still an asshole."

I laugh at that, the first genuine laugh in a long time that burst from my lungs. I hear her laugh too. As the laughter dies down, I heave a sigh. I stand there with Katniss for awhile, not minding it too much. As she releases me to go, the door slides open and Peeta enters. The younger _couple _smiled at each other warmly.

"Katniss." Peeta nods to her and then turns to me. "Haymitch, we need to talk."

I already knew what about, so I nod. "We do." I look to Katniss. "Can you give us a minute, sweetheart?"

"Sure." She left the car, probably going either to the main one or her personal car.

"Well?" I raise an eyebrow at the young man.

"Why'd you volunteer?" Peeta asks. He doesn't seem angry, just confused and shocked.

"Because I made a promise." I reply.

"What? To who?" I can tell that he already knows.

I gesture towards the door with my head. "Her."

"Why?" He questions.

"President Snow isn't going to let two Victors survive this time. She wanted you to be here when she got back, and basically asked me to die for you." I sum it up best I can, with a purposeful sarcastic tone at the end.

"But what about the plan?" Peeta swallows. "You can't do your part and I can't do mine."

"Like I said, nothing changes." I tell him. "You do my part and I'll do yours."

"You're sure it'll still work?"

"Once we talk to the rest of the tributes? Yes."

He nods. "I'll take your word for it. Just don't get her killed."

"She got out alive before, with my help from the outside. We can make this work again." I assured him. "It'll work."

"I hope so, Haymitch." He nods again, holding out his hand.

I shake it.


	2. Arrival in the Capitol

"Haymitch!" Someone's knocking on the door of my car. And that someone is angry. "Haymitch! Wake up!"

I finally blink my eyes open after several minutes of Katniss shouting at me. I squint against the light coming in through the window and hold an arm up in the direction of the light. I slowly sit up, groaning and wiping a few strands of my long blonde hair from my face. I have a slightly more than mild headache and spot a bottle of Scotch sitting on the nightstand. I have to roll my eyes in spite of myself. _Idiot._

"Haymitch!" Another loud knock makes me jump.

"What?!" I scowl, rubbing my head.

"We're arriving in an hour, get ready." I hear her walk off, her footsteps echoing slightly.

I sigh deeply, throwing my legs over the side of the bed. It takes a lot of willpower before I finally get up, five minutes later. I look in a mirror, unsurprised that I'm a complete mess. _Well, that's great. _I open the closet in the corner of the car, looking through the different sets of suits hanging up. _Why is it always a suit? _I choose one that mostly resembles what I would've worn back in Twelve. I change into it, leaving what I was wearing before folded- somewhat neatly?- on the bed, which I had attempted to make. I finish tying the tie as I look into the mirror again. I find a pathetic excuse of a hairbrush- _what is that doing on such a nice train?_\- and use it to untangle the knots in my hair and part it so that it looked decent, which was better than usual.

I scan the room one last time, looking for the personal items that I never brought along. Once that occurs to me, I give the bottle of Scotch a longing glance as I leave the car. I head through the other cars between mine and the main car itself. I force myself not to stop in the liquor car. I go through the last door and enter the main car, finding Katniss and Peeta sitting in adjacent chairs, Effie across from them. They look up and Effie turns around as I enter. I merely raise my eyebrows at them, sitting down in the chair across from Katniss.

"Well, I guess there's only a few more minutes before we get there." Effie speaks up, trying to start a conversation.

"From what I've been told." I reply, giving her an awkward nod.

When no one else says anything, Peeta tries, clearly feeling a little out of place. "I like your new hair, Effie."

"Thank you." She says. "I had it especially done to match Katniss's pin. I was thinking that we might get you boys something gold too."

I lazily turn to the younger man, raise my eyebrows, and turn back to Effie. "Why's that?"

"A token." She says it as if it were obvious. "To show that we're a team."

_Figures._

"Thank you." Katniss speaks up, looking at Effie.

"Should we see who we're up against?" I ask my fellow tribute, curious as to who was to represent the other Districts. "Because these are experienced killers, unlike last year's child's play."

She looks to me. "What does that mean for us?"

"It means that we're going to need allies."

"No."

I sigh. "Look, we're starting at a disadvantage. Most of these people have been friends for years."

"That just puts us higher on their kill list." She clearly didn't see what I was going at.

"Do it your own way, but I know these people." I remind her. "You go at it alone, their first move is going to be to hunt you- us down. Probably just you, but you get the idea."

Katniss gives me a glare, before turning to Peeta as he clears his throat.

"Katniss, come on." He urges her.

She turns back to me. "How can any of us even trust each other?"

_How could you trust Peeta in the arena? _I hold that thought to myself. "It's not about trust. It's about staying alive." I give Peeta a purposeful nod when she's not looking. "Let's just see who the other tributes are."

I glance around for the remote to the screen on the wall. I practically jump as it turns on, and I spot Effie holding it. The Panem symbol shows on the light blue, almost transparent, screen and then sure enough, it switches to show two people standing on a stage, side-by-side, holding hands. The tributes from District One.

The male tribute has a strong build and medium colored hair. I recognize him instantly. I recognize the blonde woman next to him as well. "Cashmere and Gloss. Brother and sister, District One. They won back-to-back Games. Capitol favorites, lots of sponsors. They will be lethal."

This continues on for awhile; me describing and naming out each tribute through each District. District Two: Brutus and Enobaria. District Three: Beetee and Wiress. District Four: Finnick Odair and Mags. And so on. But I know them all. Every single one of the twenty-four tributes. And if everything went to plan, not all but one would be killed this year.

Not long after I finish explaining who they are, the train begins to slow. My face becomes a stony mask, hiding my dread and fear. We are so close. Within a few minutes, we'd be there; in the Capitol. Katniss sits next to and looks out one of the windows, while Peeta and Effie talk about something I've totally tuned out of.

The train stops.

I hear the others bustling about- or it's the crowd waiting for us outside- and remain still. I jump and look up only when I've heard my name. Effie looks slightly frustrated, Katniss and Peeta concerned.

"No need to look at me like that." I scowl, getting up from the cozy chair and walking over to them.

No words are spoken as the doors are opened and we exit the train, Katniss first, me behind her, then Peeta and Effie. We walk through the path made by the crowd, who are waving at us. I see Katniss waving back and I can only assume she's pulling a fake smile. I pull myself together and force a tight smile, giving out a couple of waves here and there. We reach the end of the path, down at the edge of the road. We're forced into another vehicle, though this once is less military. There's a well dressed man in the driver's seat. And there's actually room for Peeta, Katniss, and I to breath back here. Effie seems to know the driver, who she starts smiling and talking to as we begin to leave the station.

I decide to focus on the differences between this ride and the one to the station back in Twelve to clear my mind. Aside from being less military, the vehicle is also lighter colored. The roads are so much smoother than the ones back home, and I almost miss complaining when Katniss accidentally jabbed her elbow into my ribcage. Even the sky seems brighter than back home. Everything about this is so much more cheery and comfortable, but I know that it's a coverup for Snow's schemes and dark nature. Even Katniss and Peeta know. I'd bet Effie did.

After awhile, we finally stop at the Training Center. I'm the first out of the car, followed by the others. I look up at the building, giving a small nod. Before the Quell announcement, I never would have imagined having to go through the three days of training again myself. We head on inside, Effie in front, being the escort. We head to the elevator, and I press the button to take us to the twelfth floor.

After a few moments of nothingness, a _ping _pierces the air. The elevator doors open to reveal a small group of people who must've been waiting for us. I see Cinna and Katniss' prep team, Portia and my own next to them. Katniss runs up to Cinna and they embrace in a hug. Effie and Peeta walk past to get settled in. I attempt to go past Portia, but she speaks up.

"Welcome back to the Games, Haymitch." She says.

"Funny you say that." I comment.

"You know I wasn't serious, right?" She asks, following me.

"Yeah, I know." I reply, not really caring.

"Tomorrow at seven, the team'll prepare you. You should be in by eight. Then I'll do my part and we'll have you down there by ten." She explains the plan.

"Sounds easy enough." I grunt.

"It should." She says, patting my arm. "Rest up, Haymitch. I'll see you tomorrow."

Portia turns off and heads back towards the prep team, as I head to my- formerly Peeta's- room and open the door. I see an Avox that had just finished tidying it up. She walks past me and out of the room without acknowledging me. I watch her go for a moment, before turning back to look at the room. It still hasn't changed much since my Games. Still has way more than enough space, despite an overly large bed and a closet. I walk over to the nightstand and pick up the remote for the wall which projected various scenes. I set it to the forest scene because it reminds me of home.

After a while of sitting still and just staring at the wall and listening to the sounds of chirping birds and startled deer, I decide to listen to Portia's advice; to rest. I pull back the covers on the bed and climb in, pulling them back up to my mid-back. I lay on my stomach, arms folded across the pillow, my head resting on them. I close my eyes and try to sleep. I really do try. But I'm snapped awake who knows how long later, seeing a bloodied, dying Maysilee Donner in my arms. I huff, rolling onto my back and sitting up, rubbing my face with my hands.

"I can't do this." I say aloud, my voice quiet and almost weak; vulnerable. "Why did you do this?"

_Katniss is like you. _His wise self reminds him. _Primrose is like your brother. If you were Katniss, wouldn't you fight for your family too?_

"What family?" I scowl, bringing my knees up to my chest and resting my chin on them. "I have nothing left."

_You have them._

"What? Katniss and Peeta?" I shake my head. "They don't give a damn what happens to me."

_You're that father figure that she needs._

"No, that would be Cinna."

_Uncle figure?_

"Give up."

_Just did._

"Good."

All falls silent; Me and my mind.

I don't remember falling asleep, but I wake up to someone tapping on my door roughly and calling my name. Thankfully, it's not Katniss this time. I recognize the voice of Effie. I grumble something inaudible, accidentally falling out of the bed rather than climbing out. I let out a groan as I force my numb legs to do their job.

"Haymitch, are you alright?" Effie asks.

"Fine!" I call, shaking my head to snap out of my sleepy daze. "What time is it?"

"It's seven!" She replies in a stressed tone. "You should be down with the prep team already."

"Shit." I mumble. I wipe my hair from my face, heading for the door. "Alright, I'll head down there now. Next time wake me sooner, Effie."

"You should be able to manage your sleeping schedule yourself, Haymitch!" She reminds me in a scolding way.

I frown at her as I open the door. "Never been any good at that."

"Clearly." She gives a sniff. "You'd better hurry down there."

"You think?" I walk past her, breaking into a sprint.

I enter the elevator and then press the button to take me to the Remake Center. Within a few moments, I hear a _ping_ and the elevator doors open. The prep team looks cross with me when I reach them and give an apologetic nod.

"You're late." One of them says.

"Slept in." I answer.

They have me change into a blue gown and then lay on the bed. They go over me, doing things such as clipping my nails. One of them even decides that he's going to do my hair by putting it in the same style it was in during my first Games. I agree. I'm not sure why I did, I want to _forget _those Games, not tie a stronger connection to them. They bleach my hair, probably to remove the extra unnatural blonde, and then I let them cut it.

By the time they deliver me to Portia an hour later, the only differences between now and my first Games are my age, experience, and the memories that I can't shake from my mind. I pretty much look exactly like I did then, minus my beard and wrinkles on my face that came with the age.

"Finally!" She just about exclaims. "What took you so long?"

"Make a guess." I say.

"You slept in?" She raises an eyebrow.

I nod. "Sounds about right."

"Alright, let's see…" She pulls a black outfit from the hanging rack. She hands it to me. "Put this on."

I take off the blue gown and start putting on the black outfit. "Am I going to be on fire as well?"

"Well, you have to match Katniss." She points out.

"True." I grunt, pulling on the rest of the outfit.

Portia examines me, occasionally smoothing out spots of the outfit. She seems content on it being absolutely perfect. She steps back for a minute, looking me up and down. I raise my eyebrows. She turns and picks up a pair of black shoes I'd failed to notice. She hands them to me and I put them on, over a pair of black socks that had been part of the outfit. She gives an approving nod after a moment.

"Alright, you look excellent." She says. "Now, let's hurry and get you down there."


	3. Tribute Parade & Reminders

I spot Katniss standing down by the chariot, talking to Finnick Odair as they waited. I walk over to them just as he's leaving her. He's wearing practically nothing, except for some very interesting designed shorts that have a golden net over them. District Four; fishing.

"Haymitch Abernathy." He smirks at me. "Long time."

"Finnick Odair." I raise my eyebrows, adding,"Ten years, no more or less."

He nods. "Glad to see you when we're both in the same boat."

I walk closer to him and whisper in his ear so that Katniss can't hear. "Meet me on the roof of the Training Center. Midnight."

"Alright." He says when I pull back. "I'll be there."

"Bring Mags if you can." I add.

"I will." He tells me. "Nice hair, by the way." The Anthem begins to play and Finnick practically panics. "Gotta run."

I watch as he sprints off, and wonder if he'll reach his chariot before his turn. My lips curl in amusement. Somehow I think he'll make it in the nick of time; hop on just after it starts. I turn back towards the chariot for District Twelve. The black horses toss their heads as cheers erupt and the first chariots are seen by the sponsors. Katniss has climbed into the chariot and is inspecting something in her hand. I walk over to the chariot and climb in beside her.

"What's that?" I nod at the object in her hand.

She looks up and it takes her a moment to put face to voice. "You look...different."

"They decided that they were going to have me look as close to my Games as possible." I explain, giving a half shrug. "I don't mind it that much."

"Ah." She says, and then finally answers my question. "This is the button that lights us on fire."

"Thought so." I grunt.

The chariot starts moving forward, right behind District Eleven's. I turn so that I'm straight, instead of sideways. A few moments later, we burst into the light, outside. I hear another roar of cheers. As we're halfway down the straight, I hear a crackling noise. I don't need to look to know that Katniss has hit the button.

I try to imagine what Caesar Flickerman would say. "And there she is, Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire!- accompanied by her former mentor, Haymitch Abernathy! My, what a haircut he's gotten!"

That brings a smirk to my face, somehow. For the past twenty-four years since my victory, everyone's seen me as someone who's been destroyed by the Games; someone so changed that he walks around drunk most of the time. Maybe being in this year's Games will change that. Maybe they'll view me as the kid I was during the last Quell, as the one who has a real reason to fight. Back then, that as my family. Now? Now, I fight for Katniss and Peeta; for the rebellion; for Panem. And this cause feels so much greater than the one I fought for so long ago now. That's because it is. To fight for a nation is so much more than fighting for three people, even if those people had meant more to you than the nation did; even if you could have prevented the deaths of those three people.

We're reaching the end of the straight, and entering a circle. The chariots are going around the circle. Then the chariots stop, facing the direction of the circle. A few moments later, our horses stop in their spot. I imagine the amount of training put into these horses and wonder how long it took to perfect. The cheering comes to a gradual end and I look up at President Snow on his balcony with expectancy. He gives us a brief welcome, which I accidentally tune out of. Then we're heading back to where we started, like we never stopped.

I hear more cheering as the sponsors watching get a closer look at the costumes of the rest of the tributes; clapping, whooping, all of it. I don't turn to look either way, but keep my eyes focused forward. My jaw is clamped tight, and I get the feeling I had when I killed the two careers in the last Quell; I feel hostile somehow. I pry my jaw free, allowing myself to relax slightly; I wasn't in the arena yet.

After a few more moments, we're inside again. Katniss has gotten out of the chariot before me. I climb out after her, looking at Chaff, the male tribute from District Eleven. He'd made his way over to us, nodding to me with a smile. From what I could tell, he's been faring well with only one available hand.

"Chaff." I grin at him.

"Haymitch!" He pulls me into a bear hug.

Chaff and I have been friends for years. We'd drink together and watch the Games each year, picking out the tributes we want to win, even if they weren't our own. Last year, he'd actually rooted for Katniss, to my surprise. But to see him now, only days before the arena, was a lot different.

"You look like you've been doing good." I tell him.

He shrugs. "Not as well since before the Quell was announced."

I nod. "Understandable." I turn and wave Katniss over. She comes. "Katniss, this is Chaff." The older man literally leans in and kisses her. She looks startled, taking a step back. Chaff and I share a laugh at the look on her face. "He's very friendly, don't invited him over and he'll drink up your liquor. I'll see you guys soon." I lean in an whisper in Chaff's ear. "Roof at midnight. Tell Seeder for me."

"These tributes are crazy." Katniss tells me as we walk away.

"That's because they're having to come back here as a tribute, rather than a mentor and don't want to." I reply.

"You don't seem much crazier than before." She tells me.

"That's because I volunteered, I wasn't _entirely _forced into this." I respond easily.

She looks like she wants to reply, but stops as she sees someone ahead. I turn to see Peeta coming towards us. He nods to us, turning as we reach him, so that we're all going the same way. We reach the elevator and the doors are closing when a hand stops them and makes them open. I raise my eyebrows as Johanna Mason of District Seven enters.

She stands in front of us, taking off a headdress made of leafy branches and drops it carelessly. She complains about her stylist's choice, calling them the biggest idiot in the Capitol. She compliments us as she finishes her ranting. She says that we're lucky that we got Cinna. _Like Portia just stood there and watched. _I roll my eyes. Katniss seems kind of lost, and I can tell immediately that she's making something up when she speaks.

Then Johanna does something that strips the thoughts from my head; she starts undressing completely. She throws off her shoes, her socks, and then the main part of the outfit, leaving her stalk naked before us. She even ruffles her hair, as if her designer had given it a disease. Katniss looks away, into a corner of the elevator and Peeta just stares. I find myself looking at the ceiling and wondering when we'd reach Johanna's floor.

_Ping._

"Thanks. Let's do it again sometime."

Johanna walks out as if nothing had happened. As soon as the doors close and we're moving again, I let out a breath of relief. To my surprise and confusion, Peeta bursts out laughing. Katniss and I stare at him, wondering if he's finally gone crazy. I raise an eyebrow at him as he notices the staring and he tries to compose himself.

He's still chuckling when he asks,"What?"

"I'm so glad Effie wasn't here for any of that." I mutter.

"She would've fainted." Katniss says.

The bad thing is that I can imagine it. I let out a chuckle, unable to hide a grin.

"What's so funny?" She asks.

"Just imagining what would happen if she did." I admit.

All three of us burst into a contagious laughter; the kind where every little thing makes you start laughing again.

_Ping._

The elevator finally arrives on our floor. We're still trying not to chuckle as we split our separate ways and head to our rooms- Katniss and I to change, Peeta to do God knows what. I enter mine and close the door and lean against it, slumping down to the floor. I let out a sigh. I take a moment to think. I can't sleep until after the meeting with Mags, Finnick, Chaff, Seeder, and..._Peeta! Good lord, I forgot to tell him. _

I slowly get to my feet, looking in the mirror at myself. _God, this is nostalgic. _The dark blondish-brown hair, neatly trimmed and combed. Just like the last Quarter Quell. I run a hand through my hair, ruffling it purposely. _That's more like it. _I smirk a bit. Then I sigh, walking over to the closet and searching through it. Surprisingly, I find something that doesn't happen to be a suit. It's a long sleeved white t-shirt, accompanied by light gray jeans and black shoes. I pull the outfit from the closet and lie it on the bed. I change out of the still flickering black jumpsuit type thing I'd worn for the Tribute Parade. I put it on a desk across the room, folded neatly. Maybe Portia would want it back. I change into the outfit I'd chosen, feeling much more comfortable.

_Now it's time to talk to Peeta. _I exit my room, heading towards his. I nod to Effie as I pass her, where she's sitting in the main area. A minute or so later, I reach the door of my former room. I knock, not roughly nor gently. I hear someone scrambling inside and the door opens a moment later. Peeta's hair is a mess and he looks drowsy. _Must've been sleeping. Whoops. _

"Haymitch." He nods. "What do you need?"

"To talk to you." I reply. I gesture past him with my head. "Mind if I come in?"

"Not at all." He moves to let me in.

"Good." I say. "I wasn't going to give you a choice."

Peeta closes the door and turns back to me. "So, what is it?"

"I've got four of the other tributes to agree to meet me on the roof tonight." I tell him. "I'm going to tell them our plan to get Katniss out."

"Why are you telling me this?" He asks.

"Because you're the one who made me swear to get her out alive." I retort, before adding,"You're invited."

"And Mr. Heavensbee is still going to pick us up in the hovercraft, right?" The boy questions.

I nod. "As far as I know."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He's loyal. He won't betray us to Snow."

"You're sure?" He sounds doubtful.

"I am." I reply, honestly.

Peeta nods. "Thanks for telling me."

"I'm not waking you up though." I say sarcastically, as I head out of his room.

"Same to you." He calls after me.

I hide a grin as I enter the main area of the penthouse. Effie has gone and no one else is there. I sit down on the couch and turn on the screen, watching as it begins to show the recap of the Tribute Parade. I watch without much interest, but snort at some of the ridiculous outfits. And Johanna Mason thought hers was bad. It was actually one of the best. I shake my head in amusement as I recall her rant in the elevator.

I find myself struggling to keep my eyes open moments later, even though it's probably not even an hour past noon. Soon sleep overcomes my body and I'm pitched into total blackness for a few moments, a transition to my worst nightmares. The darkness seems endless for awhile, until finally I see a light. And then the nightmares come.

_I'm in the midst of laughing at my discovery when a scream pierces the air. I recognize the scream instantly and horror fills me, ending the laugh immediately. I race up to the thorn bushes and duck as I crawl through the whole I'd blowtorched. The screams continue and I can only move on from fear._

"_Maysilee!" I cry out. _

_I burst into a small clearing in the forest, where the dirt is replaced by flowers. I see a fluffy pink bird with a long beak, pulling said beak from the neck of Maysilee, covered in blood. Other blood covered birds are nearby and they all fly off at the sight of me swinging my knife at them. I race to my District member's side, dropping the knife and falling to my knees._

"_May…" I'm at a loss for words, my eyes burning._

"_Mitch…" She gives a weak smile, a tear freeing itself from her moist eyes._

_My own eyes dampen. "May...I'm sorry."_

"_Don't be." She says. "There's nothing to be sorry for."_

_I shake my head and give a light huff, my first tear leaking from my eye. "There's _a lot _to be sorry for, you know. I should've forced you to stay with me, then maybe-"_

"_Shh." Maysilee hushes me, stroking my face. "I ended the alliance, Mitch. It's not your fault. Besides, I prefer this over having to fight you."_

_I grip her hand tightly with my own, watching her and not caring that my tears fell. There was nothing that could be done to save her. After a few long moments, I feel her hand grow limp and slide from my own. I look at her, her eyes open and lifeless. I swallow hard. I hear the horn of the hovercraft coming for her body and grab my knife, stumbling away and back into the treeline. _

_It's the next day when the last tribute finds me. She has her axe in hand, knife in another, prepared to kill me. I'm almost tempted to let her, but then I remember that my mother, brother, and girlfriend need me. I draw my own knife and stand there, sizing her up. She seems to be doing the same to me. _

"_Twelve." She nods in greeting._

"_One." I reply back in a cold voice._

"_You're the last thing standing in between me and victory." She says. "And I need you to move."_

"_And you're the last between me and my family." I say back._

_She lets out an over dramatic battle cry and charges me, swinging her axe. I duck just in time, stabbing her leg and moving away quickly. She swings the weapon at me again and it barely catches my cheek. It's a thin cut, but I still feel the blood trickling out of it. I throw my knife at her and it lands in her eye. She screams and drops her axe, barely clutching her knife. I kick the axe away, into the flowers somewhere. I watch as she tears her eye out of the socket and drops it to the ground, knife still in it. The blood flows freely down her face and it takes all of my willpower not to look away. I grab another knife, a smaller one, from my belt and get back in a defensive stance. _

_Our knives clash, but she somehow has more strength than I do. As our arms are locked, her arm slips suddenly, below mine. There's a horrible burning in my stomach, and I feel it being torn bigger. My knife falls from my grasp. Realizing that I'm badly wounded, I tear myself free. Holding an arm to my stomach, over the wound, I scramble towards the thorn bushes. They're my only hope now. I hear what sounds life her grunting, as if leaning over, and I know she's grabbing her axe again. As I drag myself under the bushes and weakly get to my feet, I make it to the edge of the rocky overhang. I turn around to face her just as she emerges from under the bushes. _

_She throws the axe just as my legs give out and I collapse onto my side. The weapon flew over my head, over the cliff. My hand falls from my stomach and I feel something abnormally shift. I know almost immediately that it's my intestines. I hear something flying back towards us and give a weak, pathetic smile as I remember the forcefield. I hear a scream moments before I hear the thumb of a body and a cannon. _

_I've survived. _

My eyes open and they're burning badly, from tears my unconscious self held in. I spot Peeta walking past, heading for the elevator. One glance at the clock and I know that I should follow him. It's time to discuss the plan.


	4. The Meeting & Understandings

"All we're waiting for now is Finnick." Peeta tells me.

I nod. "Let's give him a few more minutes."

The night air is cool and refreshing, which feels good after the heat of the day. All we can hear from up here is the breeze ruffling our clothing and the cheers from down in the streets as the Tribute Parade was being replayed once again. The full moon is bright and provides the only light we have.

_Ping._

I hear two sets of footsteps instead of one coming from the elevator. I turn to see Johanna Mason beside Finnick as he strode towards us. I sigh, barely audibly. _Well, the more people in the better, I guess. _The pair come up to us, Johanna being the first to speak, her attitude showing through.

"Well?" She asks. "This better be good."

"It will, trust me." I say. "As we all know, Katniss accidentally started a rebellion at the end of last year's Games. All of us here also know that President Snow's always been up to no good. Some know that better than others." I bite my lip, remembering my family. I force myself to continue. "We can't have Snow here for much longer, or nothing will be left. The only way is to keep the rebellion strong, which requires Katniss to be alive."

"So, you want us to protect her in the arena?" Finnick asks.

"No. This is even better." I tell him. "We're going to break her out of the arena."

Jaws drop around the circle of victors. I even see a few eyebrows raise.

"You're joking." Johanna finally says after a moment.

"I'm not." I shake my head. "We're going to break her out."

"And how are we going to do that?" She asks. "How do we know it'll work?"

"Because we have the Head Gamemaker on our side." I cross my arms.

Her eyes widen and she falls quiet.

Chaff and Seeder exchange glances and then nod.

"We're with you." He says, giving me a supportive nod.

"You already know I'm in." Peeta tells me quietly.

Finnick communicates with mags for a moment. "We're in."

"Johanna?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

"You know, I really, really hate Snow." Johanna says thoughtfully. "If this kills him in the end, of course I'm going to help."

"Oh, he'll die alright." I promise.

"Good." She sneers. "I'm in then, Abernathy."

"Good." I repeat, giving them a small nod.

"So, what's the plan?" Finnick asks.

"When we're in the arena, we ally as soon as we can. I'll try to talk to Beetee and Wiress too." I tell them. "After we ally, we play along with the other tributes- but we don't kill each other. Once most of the tributes are dead, we find a way to break out of the arena without hitting any force fields. Once she's out, we get out too." I pause. "According to what Plutarch told me, District Thirteen has been up and running for years, and the Capitol doesn't know. That's where we'll go once we get out."

"I can talk to Wiress and Beetee." Peeta assures me. "You'll need all the time you can spare for training."

"Alright." I nod in agreement. "One more thing: Don't let Katniss hear about this."

Mags gives some signals to Finnick, and he asks her question. "And what happens if one of us is killed?"

"Then we walk it off." I say.

Johanna smirks at that. The others nod in agreement and conclusion of our little meeting.

Finnick yawns and stretches. "Well, we'd better get some sleep. Tomorrow _is _the first day of training."

"Probably." Peeta agrees, catching the contagious yawn.

Chaff gives us his input. "I agree."

The six tributes start heading for the elevator, but I don't move. Peeta notices.

"You coming, Haymitch?" He asks.

"Later." I say.

He nods. "Good night then."

"Same to you." I reply.

It's silent once the elevator doors close. I find myself sitting on the edge of the roof, my legs dangling. I don't fear falling off, knowing there's a force field that would blast me back up if I did. I just sit still, hands in my lap, as the breeze ruffles my hair. It's not too chilly, nor very warm; it's the perfect mix between the two. I lay back, arms folded beneath my head, as I stare up at the moon and the stars. It reminds me of the countless nights I spent awake during the last Quell, when I feared that I'd be killed in my sleep.

I take a deep breath of the refreshing air and sigh. I find myself relaxing despite, the reason of me being here in the Capitol. It's probably the first time I've ever truly relaxed and felt comfortable since the last Quarter Quell. I have this strange feeling that the plan I had discussed with the others was going to work. I don't know why, but I just think it will. And it almost scares me; because the Capitol would not be please; because of what the Capitol would do afterwards.

I take another deep breath and my mind clears. I'm beginning to feel drowsy as I lay in comfort on the rooftop. I allow my eyes to close for a brief moment, but they refuse to open again. I find myself falling asleep just as I hear a familiar noise out of nowhere. _Ping_.

I jump, jolting into a sitting position, startled wide awake. I turn around to face the elevator. It's Katniss who I see walking out of it. She spots me and comes to my side, sitting so that her legs dangle beside mine.

"Can't sleep?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "You?"

"Alcohol withdrawal brings the memories back." I say quietly, tapping my left temple.

She nods in understanding, and reminds me,"You're only going to get more from these Games."

"I know." I reply, pushing the thought to the back of my mind. "You should probably go get some sleep."

"So should you." She says.

"Then let's both head back down." I suggest, moving back from the edge of the roof.

"Okay." She agrees, scooting back and getting to her feet much faster than me.

Stiff, I finally get up. I follow her to the elevator, which opens as soon as she hits the button. The light nearly hurts my eyes and I blink as they adjust from the darkness. I enter behind my companion and she presses the button to take us down to our penthouse floor. Within moments a _ping sounds, and_ we're exiting again. We split up to go to our separate rooms.

I enter my room, discard my shoes, and climb into bed. I get comfortable in a matter of moments and find myself drifting off again.

_My mother, younger brother, and girlfriend are being forced to their knees by the Peacekeepers. The white suited soldiers lock the aim of their guns to the heads of my only family members. I hear the shots fire in unison and I cry out as I see their bodies thump to the ground, motionless. _

_Tears leaking down my cheeks and my anger rising, I force myself through the crowd and into the main area of the Square. I jump onto the back of the Peacekeeper who killed my mother, beating my fists onto his helmet without any effectiveness. I'm thrown onto my back on the ground, a gun now pointing in my direction. The worst thing is that I _want _him to shoot me._

"_Go on, shoot." I urge him, staring up at where his eyes would be under that helmet. He hesitates. "Shoot me. One less problem for you to deal with."_

"_No, it'd be at least a hundred more." Another voice comes and the Peacekeeper in charge turns to his soldier. "Let him go."_

_The man keeps his gun trained on me as I slowly get up, hands in the air, and turn away as I leave._

I wake up to hear screaming. It sounds like Katniss. It stops almost a quickly as it had started. Wide awake, I stare at the ceiling of my room, catching my breath after my own nightmare. I take a moment to think about the conversation the other tributes and I had had earlier, on the roof. They'd all agreed, though Johanna had only to kill President Snow. We all want him dead, but no one had mentioned it before her. And she clearly wanted revenge. She wasn't afraid to show it either and that's what worries me. I don't know why Finnick brought her. He clearly trusts her, yet I'm not certain if I do myself. Guess I'd find out- she'll be my first suspect if we get betrayed to Snow.

I sigh deeply and look at my clock. It's only four. Six hours until training begins. I already know that sleeping will be hopeless. I get up from my bed, pull on a robe from in the closet, and head out. I purposely leave the door open so that anyone who tries to find me sees that I'm not there. I go into the main area of the penthouse and find myself putting in the tape of my first Games into the player.

The screen lights up as I sit on the couch. I scowl at the anthem and Panem symbol as they show up first. Of course it starts with the Reapings. I sit there and watch as the forty-eight tributes are shown, me included. I see the shock on the face of my younger self and remember the feeling. I'd felt numb then, the emotions unwilling to come out. About half an hour after the tape started, I'm finally watching the Tribute Parade, where there's two chariots per District. Maysilee, Me, and the other two tributes from Twelve are wearing coal miner outfits. I realize how lame that is compared to what Katniss and I had worn yesterday.

I get caught up in the tape, watching the interviews. I don't even notice the sun start shining through the curtains as I watch the Games themselves. I look up only when I hear footsteps and someone clearing their throat. I look up to see Effie. A scream erupts from a girl as she's killed and I flinch.

"You need something?" I ask the escort, as the girl's cannon goes off.

"It's a bit early to be up, don't you think?" She asks.

I roll my eyes. "Like you're not on your way to wake up Katniss and Peeta."

She sighs, and admits,"I actually was."

"You should probably do it then, instead of sitting here and talking to me." I suggest.

"It can wait." She says. "You and Katniss don't need to be to Portia and Cinna for the outfits for another couple of hours anyway."

I raise my eyebrows. "Your choice."

I lean back into the couch and look back up at the screen as Effie sits down beside me. I watch as my younger self takes out two Careers and then gets caught by the other. As he's about to slit my throat, he drops the the ground with a poison dart in his neck. Maysilee steps from the cover of the trees.

"We'd live longer with two of us." She says.

"Guess you just proved that." I get up and rub my neck. "Allies?"

She nods.

I scowl, turning off the screen. I can't watch that anymore. I sigh, tossing the remote onto the other couch without moving. I'm not sure if it annoyed Effie or not because I'm not looking her way. I cross my legs, unintentionally yawn, and glance at the nearest clock. It's just past seven. Another two hours and I'll have to grab my training suit from Portia and then be in the training area by ten. I'm not worried about the time.

Effie takes my hand and squeezes it. She releases it as she gets up and continues on towards Katniss' room. I watch her go, not saying anything. A minute later, she's coming back, but she passes by to go do something else. Peeta comes this way soon after, nodding to me in greeting. After another five minutes, I see Katniss enter the main area. She heads over and sits down next to me.

"So, how long have you been sitting here?" She asks me.

"Since four." I answer. "Only slept a few hours."

"What for?" Katniss asks.

"Let's see...had to meet a few friends at midnight, then a few hours after you and I came back in, _I heard you screaming_." I raise my eyebrows at her. "Nightmare?"

She nods and quietly says one name. "Rue."

I take a deep breath. Because it's just like when Maysilee died. "I know the feeling."

I swear she seems more and more like me every day.


	5. Training & Remembering

"Last thing: there is no fighting with the other tributes. Save it for the arena." The head trainer says. "Off you go."

The group of tributes disperses to the many different stations. This year, Katniss and I had agreed not to follow each other wherever we went. I find myself throwing knives at targets boredly. The first few were a little off, but once I'd gotten back into it, I'd been spot on in the center of each every time.

I glance around after a while to get a good look at where everyone was at. I'm not sure if I'm just curious, or if I'm cautious already. I spot Finnick spearing animated targets with a trident, Katniss and Mags at the knot tying station, and Beetee with Wiress at the fire starting station. The tributes from Districts One and Two are talking in hushed voices together, casting suspicious looks at other tributes occasionally. I'm genuinely not surprised at all. This is how it is every year; the Careers forming their alliances and planning out how they're going to win before the Games even begin- before they know the arena.

I twirl a knife in my fingers. Speaking of alliances...I have to wonder if the others will keep their word. I also wonder if Peeta's talked to Wiress and Beetee yet. They'd be a huge help, with their brilliant minds. If Beetee could electrocute six tributes, he could surely find a way to break out of an arena, right? Certainly.

"Hey there." I whirl around and point the knife directly at Finnick. He flinches back a few millimeters, holds up his hands, and raises his eyebrows. "Don't kill me, we're not in the arena yet."

"What do you want?" I ask, lowering the knife, eyeing him with curiosity.

"You looked bored." He says. He points to a glass room nearby. "You know, you can throw those knives at live targets in there. It'd be more entertaining."

"It would be." I agree.

We both jump slightly when we hear someone shooting arrows. We turn to look at the live target area for that. I see Katniss inside, Mags standing outside and watching with wonder. Finnick and I exchange glances, heading over in that direction. We stand outside with Mags and other tributes who've gathered around before we reached the area. Even the Careers are watching with more than mild interest. I'm not sure if that's good or not. By the time she finishes shooting all of the targets and turns to look at Mags, pretty much every tribute is standing outside. Wiress claps enthusiastically.

After a few moments, the group disperses and everyone's off to doing what they were before. This time I decide to take Finnick's offer; I enter the live target room for the knives, taking two with me. I mess with the controls to the simulation, setting them to what felt right. I tap the start button and walk out into the middle of the glass room.

Orange lasers cover the expanse of the room's lower level. I watch them with curiosity, until an orange figure springs from one and then the lasers dissolve into air. The figure runs at me with an axe. I duck as it swings and then chuck the knife into the face. It dissolves and I catch the knife, chucking it into the chest of the next target. I grab the knife after it clatters to the floor. Now, two of the orange figures are charging me, together, and I stab them both at the same time when they're at my sides. Suddenly another figure has got me knocked onto the ground. I roll out of the way as a fake sword slams where my head had been. I trip the figure and then stab it through the stomach after it's fallen. I hear footsteps behind me, whirl around, and throw one of the knives into another target. I recollect the weapon and glance at the upper layer. Sure enough, there's two orange targets up there. One tries to throw a spear as I throw my knife into its chest. The other aims a bow at me. It shoots, but I dodge it and throw my last knife through its head.

There's a sound like a generator turning off and the simulation ends. I turn towards the entrance as the doors open. Finnick's grinning at me with an impressed Johanna at his side. I collect the two knives before I head out of the glass room. I hold them at my sides for safety, not wanting to unintentionally break something. Johanna leaves as I walk over to them.

"You haven't lost it in the last twenty-five years." Finnick compliments.

"Of course I haven't." I reply as I put the knives back. "Not when I sleep with one of these."

"You really don't trust anyone, do you?" He raises an eyebrow at me.

"Only a select few people." I say, turning to face him. I answer the unasked question. "You're not quite on that list yet either."

"Figures." He chuckles good-naturedly.

By the time training ends, I'm relieved. I've spent most of the time dealing with Finnick, who'd been about as bored as I'd been. He'd resorted to picking on some of the more tolerating tributes. Trying to keep him out of trouble hadn't been very easy. At one point, he'd even managed to accidentally piss off a Career, Brutus, and a few peacekeepers had to pull the man from District One away from him. I'd kept an even closer eye on him since.

He and I enter the elevator with Mags and Katniss. I stand in the corner, arms crossed across my chest. Both tributes from District Four stand in the middle, Katniss behind them. It's so quiet that it feels strange. There's a tension in the air that I don't like. I sigh.

Katniss turns and looks at me curiously. "What's wrong."

I silently point a finger at Finnick.

She nods in understanding and faces forward again.

_Ping._

Finnick and Mags get off and we're moving again.

"So, what'd he do?" Katniss asks me.

"Brutus came up when he was picking on Enobaria." I say. "Peacekeepers had to keep Brutus off of him. I spent the last couple of hours trailing him and making sure nothing else happened."

"Why bother?" She asks. "It's Finnick. He can handle himself. He's been through the Games too, and he should know better. You don't need to mentor him on behavior, Haymitch. He's not even from our District. And you're not even a mentor this year."

_Because he's in the alliance, _I want to say, but know I can't. Instead I grumble,"Fair point."

_Ping. _

Peeta's there to greet us. He looks fairly pleased. "Whatever you did, great job."

"What?" I ask, half confused and half curious.

"A good portion of the other tributes want to ally with you guys." He says. "What'd you do?"

"I shot some arrows." Katniss shrugs.

I sigh. I hate it when she's not completely honest. "She put on a show for the other tributes, I'll say that."

"I wouldn't call it a show." She grumbles.

"Well, it must've been." Peeta tells her. "I wish I could've been there to see it."

Katniss blushes and tries to make an excuse. "Well, Mags showed me how to tie something so I thought showing her how to hunt would be good in return."

"Katniss." I sigh, shaking my head, feeling sympathetic at her pointless act of kindness. "Someone like Mags won't be able to hunt. She's too old to do it. You've seen how hard it is for her to walk."

"Then she won't make it." She realizes.

I shake my head again, sadly. "No, she won't."

"So…" Peeta speaks up. "Who do you guys want as allies?"

"Mags." Katniss says instantly. "Wiress and Beetee."

I nod approvingly at her choice of the tributes from Three. "Definitely those two."

"Johanna calls them _Nuts and Volts_." Peeta frowns. Then he adds,"I was on the roof earlier and she came up for some reason- when you guys were eating lunch."

"Ignore Johanna." I order, rolling my eyes. I turn to Katniss. "Anyone else?"

She shakes her head. "No."

"Then may I offer some suggestions?" I ask her.

"Go ahead."

"Chaff. Seeder. And Finnick."

"You're seriously suggesting Finnick after earlier?" Katniss questions.

"He's young. Strong." I say. "He'll come in handy. He just has a loud mouth."

She shakes her head, walking away. "I'll consider it."

Peeta and I are left standing alone by the elevator as she heads, probably, to her room. He and I exchange glances after staring after her until she's out of sight. It's silent for a few moments, until I remember what I had been planning to say to him.

"I figured as much that she'd say that." I sigh.

"It's not really that surprising." He agrees.

"We _need _to get her to accept working with him." I say, thinking hard.

"How?" Peeta asks.

"Effie's plan of those tokens." I tell him. "When you get yours, give it to Finnick's stylists so that they have him wear it during the Games. Then she'll have to trust him."

"You're sure it'll work?"

"Absolutely."

"I hope you're right." He says.

"I guess we'll find out in three days." I reply.

He nods, dismissing himself. I watch him walk away, in the direction that Katniss had gone. _Three days_. Two to finish up training, including the private session, and to do the interviews. Then on the third day, we'd be going up in the pods. I can't get my head around it. Part of myself has been left in mentor mode, forgetting that Peeta's the one doing that this year. It makes it almost feel like the boy's here only for moral support for Katniss. _Haymitch, get your _game _on._

_Three days. _The two words won't leave me alone. Bloodied, unmoving bodies fly through my head as I remember my Games. Watching other ones after that felt completely different after I survived. Sometimes it had felt like I was _in _the arena with my tributes. My mind would scream when they did.

Suddenly, I feel sick to my stomach. I want to throw up. I hurry towards my room, not running nor quite running. I slam the door shut after I enter and collapse against it. It hold my head in my hands, trying to settle my rapid breathing and heart rate. _What have you done? You idiot, what have you done?! What did you expect to gain from volunteering? Why did you make the promise with Katniss in the first place? _While I mentally yell at myself, I don't realize that my breathing has turned to hyperventilating. All of the years of drinking have kept me calm, but now, just a few days before I'm going back _into the arena, _it seems as if the panic and fear is finally crumbling down on top of me.

I squeeze my eyes shut, even though my hands are already blocking out ninety-nine percent of all light. I whimper and violently shake my head, my hands falling from my face. Maysilee appears before my hallucinating, fear-driven eyes, bleeding and gasping for air. That's the last straw.

I let out a medium-pitched, strangled shout and fall onto my side from my sitting position against the door. _The girl from District One is standing over me with her axe. _I curl into a fetal position, arms protectively over my head. I'm shaking, tears held over the years finally being shed and streaming down my cheeks.

I'm a hot mess. There are knocks on the door and people calling my name. I refuse to answer; I refuse to move a muscle. I don't even have the heart to tell them to go away. They try to open the door, but it opens in instead of out and I'm in the way. I've finally placed the voices with names: Katniss, Peeta, and Effie.

I hear Peeta grunt as he slams against the door in failed attempts to break it down. I also hear him and the other two talk among each other. I don't listen to their conversation. Another voice reaches my ears. This voice is far calmer, yet demanding. Cinna.

"Give him some time." Cinna says.

"But-" I hear Katniss protest.

"Katniss, he's watched over a hundred kids die." He interrupts. "And after the last Quarter Quell, it only would've been tougher. You both know that no Victor comes out of the Games untouched. Going back in isn't easy for any of this year's tributes, I know that. But it especially isn't for someone who's won another Quarter Quell. I don't have a clue how he managed to get himself to volunteer for Peeta." There's silence before Cinna finishes. "Imagine if you were him. Think about how hard it would be to be in his position. Leave him alone for now, until he's ready to come out."

I hear footsteps echoing through the floor. I'm a little more relaxed now, but I'm still in bad shape. It doesn't help that my back aches from the door hitting against it in Peeta's attempts to get in. My eyes are still moist, but they're no longer burning. My breath finally catches up with me. I'm still shaky though.

"Haymitch?" Cinna calls in.

I'm surprised, I didn't know he was still there. I sit up and try to get to my feet, collapsing to my hands and knees with a _thud_. I manage to get up on the second try, and wipe my face dry. I blink away the unshed tears, ones that will never form now. I clear my throat, knowing my voice will probably be hoarse anyway.

"What is it, Cinna?" I sound tired instead.

"Do you think you'll be okay enough to join us for dinner?" He asks.

"Oh, definitely." I reply sarcastically.

Cinna sighs. "Is that a no?"

"Tell me when and I'll be there." I answer the initial question.

"Twenty minutes. Is that too soon?"

"No, that's fine."


	6. Understandings

"_Mitch." Maysilee says. "You okay?"_

_I look up at her from where I'd been rummaging through a dead boy's pack. "Yeah. Fine."_

"_Are you sure?" She asks. "You're really pale."_

_I put down the water bottle I've found, looking at it blankly. "It's just...this is cruel."_

"_You're right. They shouldn't throw people in here and force them to kill each other." She agrees._

"_But we're not just any people." I remind her. "We're kids. All of us. And they're making us kill each other."_

_May squats down next to me and cups my cheek, to make me look at her. "I know, Mitch. But what can _we _do about it?" She shakes her head. "There's nothing that a couple of kids can do to fix this." Her caring green eyes meet with my gray Seam ones. We hold each other's gaze. "You gonna be okay?"_

"_Yeah." I nod. "We should get moving."_

Her soft, gentle eyes are what finally give me the calmness I need. I look at the clock, seeing that I should probably head out in a couple of minutes. I don't have any fight left in me, so I hope it all goes smoothly while we eat. I swallow the last traces of salt in my throat and look in the mirror. I straighten out my hair and decide that it's good enough. There's nothing I can do to raise my somber mood, which, unfortunately, shows on my face as bags under my eyes. _Too bad, _I tell myself.

I walk to my door and open it. The outside has a thin crack on it from Peeta, and that amuses me for only a second. Then I'm back in my dark pit as I walk down the hall. I enter the main area of the penthouse to see everyone seated around the dining table. I take my seat, not talking to anyone or meeting any gazes. The two Avoxes start placing platters and plates on the table.

"Haymitch, pass the butter." Katniss tells me.

I grab it and pass it to her. "Here." I mumble.

I'm not that hungry, so all I put on my plate is a couple of chicken legs. As soon as I finish eating, I head for the elevator. I take it up to the roof, the most uninhabited place in the whole Capitol. _Ping. _I exit the elevator and see that I'm not alone up here. Finnick Odair is up here. He's dangling his legs over the edge, looking into the setting sun. He's not even moving and I have to wonder if he's died before we've entered the arena. I reconsider that thought when he starts talking.

"Tomorrow's more of today, then the next day is the private sessions and the interviews." He says. "Then we're going up the pods and to our deaths."

"Sounds about right." I agree.

"Haymitch."

"Finnick."

I sit down on the edge next to him. The orange and pink colors of the sky remind me of watching the shadows go long at the end of each day back in District Twelve. That's my favorite time of the day; when the sun shines so, so brightly just before sunset. Everything would shine. It would make the Seam look better than unpleasant. I sigh quietly. It's something I'll probably never see back at home again. Either I'm going to die in the arena, or we'll get out and Snow'll be likely to bomb Twelve.

"You think it'll work?" He asks me. "The plan. Katniss seems to despise me."

"Peeta and I've figured that part out somewhat." I tell him. "Our escort is getting golden _tokens _for him and I. I told him to give his to your stylists when he gets it, so they can have you wear it during the Games. Then she'll have to trust you."

"Okay, sounds like it'll work." He nods, still looking into the sunset. "I can't believe we're doing this; going back in."

"I'm still in mentor mode." I say. "Telling Katniss what to do even though that's not my job this year. If anything, I should be helping Peeta. He has no clue how to mentor and do that kind of stuff."

"It definitely takes some getting used to." Finnick agrees.

We fall silent, just sitting there and watching the sunset. Gradually, the sky grows darker after the sun's below the horizon. The pink turns to a light purple that darkens, and then to a midnight blue. The only light is the moon and the stars. My companion lies on his back and looks up at the moon. I rest my elbows on my knees and look down on the rest of the Capitol.

Not long later, a light breeze springs up, one like last night. It feels soothing against my skin. I can imagine that it reminds Finnick of his home; District Four is known for being near the water, after all- and where there's a large body of water, there's usually a breeze.

_Home. _I have to wonder how all of the other tributes are putting up with this. I know some are probably falling apart a bit, but acting as normal as possible on the outside. Others seem to treat being back here as some sort of party; like it was a good thing. That angers me. _This _is no party. _This _is life or death. It's nothing to laugh or have fun about. Sure, it's called the Hunger _Games_, but this is no game.

After awhile, I turn to look back at Finnick. His eyes are closed and his breathing is slow. I realize that he's fallen asleep. I consider prodding or shaking him. He wouldn't be angry I'd awakened him. I reconsider it, knowing that he'd start up a conversation and break the quiet peace. So I leave him alone. A couple of minutes later, I hear murmuring behind me. I turn to see the District Four tribute shaking and moving about. An arm flails through the air and I scramble a few yards away from him. The murmurs start growing louder, until he's practically yelling in his sleep.

"Finnick!" I shout, attempting to wake him.

"Annie!" He screams, shooting bolt upright, eyes wide and full of fear.

I jump back another few inches in surprise. I don't say anything and have to wonder if he knows that I'm still here when he doesn't either. His breathing begins to slow as he realizes that Annie Cresta, his love and the woman Mags volunteered for, is safe. He runs a hand through his hair and sighs, taking in a deep breath.

"You alright?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah." Finnick says, nodding quickly, avoiding my gaze. When he looks up, he catches me off-guard with a question I've waited to hear for years. "Do you get nightmares about Maysilee?"

"All the time." I grunt. "Doesn't help that she's dead either."

"It definitely wouldn't." He nods again. "Did you know her before your Games?"

I can't believe I'm opening up to him. "No. I'd seen her occasionally, but I didn't know her. She wasn't even the first. The first was a beautiful girl. I loved her as much- maybe even more than- my own family. But I broke off the relationship when I was reaped for the last Quell. I didn't think I'd make it. But I did. And then _they _killed her, my mother, and my brother."

"Snow had the Peacekeepers kill them?" He asks, seeming horrified.

"Assuming you've seen my Games,"I see him nod,"you know that I used the force field as my last defense. Apparently I wasn't supposed to get all the way to the edge of the arena. But I had no way of knowing it. That force field saved my life, but I still paid for it." I pause. "They couldn't kill me- I was the only Victor for District Twelve, so they killed my family instead to make me stay in line. If I do something stupid any time soon, they have nothing to take from me that I haven't lost- minus my life."

"I can't imagine losing Annie because I do something stupid in the arena…" He murmurs.

"And you won't lose her." I promise. "Plutarch is making sure that the family of the members of our alliance are accounted for if anything goes horribly wrong during the Games. Meaning, he'll rescue them."

Finnick looks up at me gratefully. "You have no idea how much I appreciate this."

I give a small, rare smile, which fades after a moment. "No one else deserves to feel what I do."

"Well, Haymitch, I'm glad we're allies." He says.

I nod in agreement. "It'll be a good thing by the time the Games start."

He rises to his feet. "I don't doubt it."

I get up too. We enter the elevator together. It only took about ten seconds to reach the District Twelve penthouse level. _Ping. _I nod to him as I exit, and he returns the nod with a small smile. I walk into the main area of the penthouse. All of the main lights are off and no one's in sight. Finnick and I must've been out there longer than I'd thought. Good thing too, because I don't feel like being confronted by the others about earlier yet.

I find my feet guide me to the couch. I sit down, locate the remote, and turn on the screen. Caesar Flickerman is going over the tribute interviews from each of our past Games. He seems to be trying to determine what the lot of us are going to say this year. His hair is bright pink this year. I take a moment to think. What could I say this year? There's not much to say, especially when I'm going back into an arena for a high-chanced death against experienced killers. I don't know why I'm thinking about the interviews. Including tomorrow, there's still two whole days before we get to that stage.

After he finishes going through the interviews, Caesar goes over the highlights of each tributes' first Games. By the time he finishes with District Eleven, I'm already sick of it. But I can't tear my eyes away from the screen, because now my sixteen year old self is up on it. I'm standing on my pod, racing towards the cornucopia, killing two careers, getting saved by Maysilee, allying with May, traveling towards the end of the arena, reaching the end of the arena and laughing, watching May die in my arms, and then I'm fighting the girl from District One. I'm holding in my intestines, collapsing on the ground, and watching as the girl's axe hits home.

I sit silently, as I watch. My hand subconsciously goes under my shirt and to the old scar of the wound. I feel the old pain in it again, like it was still open and bleeding. I wince. I pull my hand back and look at it. There's blood; thick, red, and scarlet, running down my arm. My breathing quickens and I fall off of the couch, onto my side. Everything around me transforms to a rocky cliffside. I'm holding my intestines in again, looking up at my would-be killer. I shake my head violently and I'm snapped back to reality, back to the dark room I never really left.

I swallow, sighing, and climbing back onto the couch from the floor. It's like half of me is still in the arena of the second Quarter Quell. I can't get over everything that had happened, even though I try so hard. _You can't escape it; the memories, the Games, the Capitol. _I tell myself. _Once you've been in one arena, you're forever a pawn of the Capitol; a pawn of Snow._

I compose myself and look back up at the screen to see Katniss closing Rue's eyes. She then proceeds to break down, screaming and crying. She collects flowers and surrounds the body with them. She's stoney cold as she watches the hovercraft take the body away. But then she presses three fingers to her lips and holds them up. It's a sign of sorrow and compassion for the dead girl. Then she walks away.

I huff softly and shake my head. That girl; the girl on fire; Katniss Everdeen; she's strong, stubborn, smart, caring...There's a lot about her. I easily see why Peeta cares for her. But that girl could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve that boy. She could. He's too good for her. He's pure tenderness, and she's rock hard. She's the complete opposite of him...Well, not _complete_ opposite, but not very much alike to him either.

As I'm reflecting in my thoughts, Caesar's show ends. I turn off the screen and place the remote on the table beside the couch. I get to my feet, stretch, and head for my room. I enter it, close the door, and change to something more comfortable. I climb into the bed and fall asleep soon after my eyes close.

_I'm being congratulated by my mentor, one from District Eleven who's taken over for Twelve ever since she was crowned Victor. I don't feel very special though. All I feel is resentment towards the Capitol, the Games, and Maysilee death. I'm pretty much glaring at her as she talks to me._

"_Well done, Haymitch!" She's beaming._

"_Well done?" I scowl at her. "May's dead and the other tributes from Twelve."_

_The woman sighs. "You know there can only be one Victor."_

"_There's a difference between winning and surviving." I growl. "I survived; Snow won. He always does. No one else does; no one else gains anything. He kills _kids _for his own entertainment! I'm no Victor, I'm a survivor."_

"_Look, Haymitch, I know how you feel." She says. "But you have to act like a Victor. Especially after what you did."_

_My jaw drops a bit. "What'd I do?"_

"_The force field." She tells me. "You weren't supposed to find it. Snow's angry; you showed them up. And when he's angry, it's no good for anyone else."_

"_What can he do to me that's not happened yet?" I ask, cockily. Then I realize what she meant. My lips curve downward and fear tugs at me. "No, no, no...Oh no. I need to get back home! Cassidy, I need to get back to Twelve!"_

_She shakes her head, eyes full of pity. "You can't yet. There's still the final interview."_

"_Forget the interview, he's gonna have _them _killed!" I snap at her._

"_You don't know that!" Cassidy tells me._

"_THEY'RE GOING TO BE _KILLED_!" I scream at her. "Don't you understand? I can't let them kill my family!"_

"_Haymitch-" _

_I'm already heading for the elevator double time._

My eyes snap open. Sunlight is peaking in around the curtains. I take a deep breath, pulling myself back together after that memory. I sit up, glancing at the clock. It's eight. Two hours and day two of training begins.

And I'm actually looking forward to working with Finnick again.


	7. The Scores

We're sitting in a room, waiting. All of the tributes have gone through, minus Katniss and I. I'd settled on throwing knives for my session. The previous day had been very similar to the first, but Finnick hadn't annoyed any Careers this time. Now my fellow District member and I sat in silence, waiting for Seeder to finish up whatever she was performing to the Gamemakers.

A voice through the loudspeakers broke the silence. "Haymitch Abernathy, District Twelve."

I sigh, standing up. I walk towards the hallway that lead away from the room. I enter it and walk down to a set of double doors. I nod to Seeder as we pass, her leaving the room and me entering.

I walk to the center of the room and stop at the rack that held the knives. I grab one and toss it up a few centimeters repeatedly, glancing up to see if the Gamemakers were paying attention. I don't want to have to throw it at them like how Katniss shot an arrow at their apple last year. Though I will admit, I still find it amusing. And they gave her an eleven for it. Thankfully, they are watching me. In fact, they seem more attentive than ever. Plutarch's been making sure that they do their job well then. Speaking of the head Gamemaker, I spot him up with the others.

"You may begin, Mr. Abernathy." He tells me.

I give him one last look before I chuck the knife into the center of the target on the far right. I immediately grab another knife and throw it at the center of the next. And then I do the same to the third target with the next knife. The human shaped targets have several actual targets on them. So now that the chests are covered, I chuck knives at the head. Then the knees. I throw knives into the centers of all six hands, even though there's no target there. I throw my last three knives into the necks and then inspect my work. Every knife was on target; every one that I threw at an actual target made it dead center. I smile, because I haven't lost my skill at all.

I recollect each and every blade, putting them back on the rack I found them on. I look back at the targets. Definitely left a few marks. That's what I call a job well done. I turn back to Plutarch and his Gamemakers, crossing my arms.

"You're dismissed." He says. Then into the loudspeaker,"Katniss Everdeen, District Twelve."

I turn back towards the exit, walking that way. I'm confident that my score won't be too high or low. I'm hoping for an eight or a nine. A ten wouldn't be too bad, but anything above would be suicide- I'd be a main target in the arena. Anything lower than an eight would just be depressing.

I glance at Katniss as we walk past each other through the doors. "Good luck."

She just nods in reply.

I walk to the back of the room and press the button for the elevator to come back down from the District Eleven floor. I'd wait for Katniss, but there's no telling how long whatever she does will take. The elevator arrives with a _ping _and I enter, pressing the button to take me up to the District Twelve penthouse. I cross my arms as I stand in the middle of the small space, waiting semi-patiently. It crosses my mind for a brief moment that the interviews are tonight too. Then I'm consumed by the reminder that tomorrow the Games begin.

A sharp _ping _clears my thoughts out and I exit the elevator.

I head to my room. I close the door and search through the closet for something to change into. I find a beige set of dress pants and a long-sleeved shirt. I find a set of comfortable shoes that I put on. I change into the chosen clothing, folding up my training outfit and laying it on my bed for now. I make a mental note to take it down with me when Portia and the team put me in some suit for the interviews. Not that I'll remember anyway.

I leave my room and head for the main area of the penthouse. I find Effie sitting on the couch, watching last year's Reaping. She doesn't seem to have noticed me yet, so I quietly walk around behind her, intent on catching her off-guard. She winces slightly when it shows me walk out onto the stage and somehow fall off head first. To this day, I still have no idea how that happened. I must've been incredibly drunk. Well, that's not unlike me.

Effie's gaze is still glued to the screen. I don't move a muscle, waiting for the perfect time to spring into action. I know that it's my chance when Katniss screams at Prim as they're leading her to the stage because she's leaning forward, watching so intently. I already know that I'll find this more than amusing.

I snap my fingers loudly and Effie whips around faster than I've seen anyone move, a small shriek escaping her lips. She frowns when she sees me, but I'm already grinning so hard that it hurts.

"Haymitch!" She scolds me, but is unable to keep a tiny smile from her face. "So, how'd it go?"

"I'd say fairly well." I tell her, growing serious. "Nothing went to chaos like Katniss did last year."

"Good." She says.

I'm about to sit down next to her, when I hear another voice; one that shouldn't be here.

"Hello? Anyone home?" It's Johanna. "Abernathy?"

I scowl, hurrying towards the elevator. "What are you doing on this floor?"

"Looking for you." Johanna answers when I reach her.

"What for?" I ask, sighing.

"Add Blight, Woof, the morphlings, the guy from Six, and Cecelia." She says.

"That's six more tributes." I reply, stunned. "You're joking?"

She shakes her head. "I don't do that."

"So, we have those six, Finnick, you, me, Beetee, Wiress, Mags, Chaff, Seeder, and Katniss herself." I do the math. "That's fifteen out of twenty-four of us."

"Sounds about right." She nods. "I'd say we're pretty set if no one changes their mind last minute."

_Ping._

Johanna and I look up. Katniss emerges from the elevator. The District Seven tribute and I shake hands. She gets in the elevator, which closes soon after, and she's gone. My fellow District member gives me a what-was-that-all-about look. I ignore it.

"Well, what'd you do this time?" I ask her.

"I need to tell everyone at once." She tells me.

Suddenly, I'm worried. I'm not sure that I want to know what she did anymore. Based on her attitude and only wanting to say it once, it must've been bad. I follow her away from the elevator, through the main area, and toward her room.

"You messed up?" I guessed.

She says. "I guess you could say that."

I grab her shoulder and make her stop walking. "How much bigger of a target did it make us?"

"For the Gamemakers or the tributes?" She asks back.

"Katniss." I sigh in exasperation, rubbing my face. "If we get killed in the first day, I blame you."

"Why can't I blame you?" She asks me.

"Because all I did was throw knives." I answer. "You clearly didn't just shoot arrows."

"I didn't shoot at all." She admits. But that's all I get out of her before she jerks free and goes into her room.

"Shit." I mutter aloud. I head back to the main area, seeing Portia and Cinna coming from the elevator hallway. Effie hasn't moved at all. I turn and promptly go to my old room and knock on the door. "Peeta!"

The boy opens the door. "Yeah?"

"Come out here, we might have a problem." I tell him.

"What kind of problem?" He looks worried.

I sigh. "Apparently Katniss' private session didn't go to plan."

"What'd she do?" He asks.

"I don't know." I admit. "That's what we're about to find out."

Peeta follows me back to the main area, and we sit down beside Cinna and Portia. Katniss comes in shortly after, changed into another outfit. She sits down in one of the cushioned chairs and doesn't say anything. The silence goes on for a few moments.

"How'd the sessions go?" Cinna asks.

Katniss looks at me. "You first."

Everyone looks at me expectantly and I just shrug. "Threw some knives. All hit the exact spots."

Apparently that satisfied them because they turn to look at my fellow tribute. I glance at her too, both curious and worried. _What'd she do this time? Kill someone? Destroy the room? Break the bow before she could shoot? Snap the arrows? Don't tell me she mocked the Capitol somehow. _I don't think she would go that far.

"Well?" I demand. "What'd you do this time, sweetheart?"

"I hung a dummy and painted Seneca Crane's name on it." She says.

No one says anything. My jaw is hanging open as I try to come up with some smart-alec comment. It doesn't come. I just stare at her. Everyone else seems in a similar state of shock. Katniss doesn't even move, but looks back at us with an emotionless gaze. Effie raises a finger, opens her mouth, but then lowers her finger when no words come.

"You..._hung_...Seneca Crane?" Cinna asks, puzzled.

She nods. "Yes. I was showing off my new knot-tying skills, and he somehow ended up at the end of the noose."

"Oh, Katniss." Effie finally speaks, though hushedly. "How do you even know about that?"

"Is it a secret?" Katniss asks. "President Snow didn't act like it was. In fact, he seemed eager for me to know." The escort gets up and walks away without another word. "Now I upset Effie. I should have lied and said I shot some arrows."

"Why?" I finally ask. "You didn't need to label it as anyone. So, why him?"

"Because. Because he threw fireballs at me. Because he put in the mutts." Then she hisses,"Because he didn't let Peeta and I eat the berries."

Suddenly I'm angry. "Look, sweetheart, you and Peeta wouldn't be alive if he'd let you eat those berries. Give him some credit for saving your lives."

"Katniss, he's right." Peeta adds in.

Cinna and Portia also give their support by nodding.

"Kind of pointless if we die this year." Katniss says.

"If _you _die this year." I correct. "Peeta's not going into the arena this year."

"Still." She crosses her arms.

I grit my teeth. "We might as well die in there if you keep this up."

Cinna's frowning, Portia's shaking her head in disapproval, and Peeta's jaw is hanging open slightly. Even Effie's watching from the edge of the room, looking more than mildly unimpressed. Katniss seems to be restraining herself from leaping at me. I raise my eyebrows in challenge, staying put. She scowls and I can see the fire in her eyes reaching its limit.

The girl on fire throws herself at me and I barely dodge a punch, eyes wide. Now _that _I didn't quite see coming. Peeta grabs her and pulls her back, keeping her away from me. She glares at me, still struggling to get free from his grasp. My face goes cold and my eyes narrow darkly at her.

"We're supposed to work _together _in the arena. We don't even go up until _tomorrow _and you're _already trying to kill me_." I say.

Katniss starts to retort, but is cut off by the Panem anthem. We all glance to the screen, which had turned itself on. _The scores. _Peeta releases her and we all sit down. Caesar introduces himself and explains the scoring. Then he proceeds to name off the different scores. I tune out most of it, until he reaches District Twelve. I conveniently get a nine. We had Katniss' score coming, but we are all taken off-guard when it is announced.

"District Twelve; Katniss Everdeen." He pauses for a moment. "Score of _twelve_."

I scowl. Of course we're going to be a number one target for those not in the alliance now. _Why'd that girl have to label a training dummy as Seneca Crane? _I rest my elbow on the arm of the couch and pinch the bridge of my nose with a heavy sigh. I hear the others give disapproving noises too.

"But a twelve is good, isn't it?" Katniss asks innocently.

"If you want to die early on." I say a little too harshly. My voice softens. "Right now, you're a bad luck magnet. You need to fix that in your interview tonight. Think you can do that, sweetheart?"

She gives a not-so-reassuring shrug. "Maybe."

I sigh audibly. "Just act like you've known the Capitol your whole life and we'll make it through."


	8. The Interviews

I'm taken down to the prep team at seven. They do what they need to do and then deliver me to Portia fifteen minutes early. She takes some time to put me in a very formal white suit. The collar itches at my neck and she tells me several times to stop scratching. It's not like I can help it; I'm not used to suits, even after wearing them several times each year for the past twenty-five years. She runs a comb through my short hair to straighten out all of the knots. I swear I can feel some of the hair being tugged from my head. Then I'm ready.

"That'll do, Haymitch." Portia says. "I'll take you down there. The interviews should be starting soon."

"Right." I say, clawing at my neck again.

"Come along." She opens the door. "And for goodness sake, stop scratching your neck!"

I reluctantly obey, following her out. We enter the elevator and head down to the floor where the interviews are to be held. _Ping. _We walk down the backstage corridors, reaching the final room. Most of the tributes are here. Some haven't arrived yet, but I can see Gloss and Cashmere heading out onto the stage. Cinna is adding the final touches to Katniss wedding gown, the one she was supposed to have worn during the wedding of her to Peeta that never happened. Portia gives me one last nod and leaves, probably to sit in the crowd and watch from the sponsors' view.

"You two made the Games a family affair." Caesar is saying. "You became everyone's brother and sister. I don't know how we're going to let you go."

"We're not going by choice." Gloss answers. The crowd "awws". "You are our family. And I don't see how anyone can love us better."

"So sweet." The interviewer whispers sharply. Cashmere starts crying. "Are you alright, dear?"

"I'm sorry." She says. "I just can't stop crying."

"God, does anybody actually believe this?" Katniss asks, rolling her eyes, from nearby me.

"Apparently everybody." I reply, pointing to where Effie and two of Katniss' prep team dabbed at their eyes.

"She is very good." Effie says to the others.

"These Victors are angry, Katniss." I tell the girl from my District. "They'll say anything to try to stop the Games. I suggest you do the same."

I tune out and miss District Two's interviews. When I look back up, Beetee's onstage.

"Beetee." Caesar says. "You have contributed so much to Panem over the years. I don't know who we will miss more: You or your brain."

Beetee answers as the crowd laughs. "The Quarter Quell was written in the law by men, certainly it can be unwritten."

"Yes…" The interviewer replies casually. "Interesting concept."

I tune out of the District Four interviews too. Finnick is only giving his heart to and declaring his love for Annie Cresta. Mags tries to answer questions with gestures, as she can't talk. When I look back up, Johanna is on the stage next to Caesar. _Went through Five and Six quickly._

"We have seen a lot of tears here tonight. But I see no tears in Johanna's eyes." Caesar says thoughtfully. "Johanna, you are angry. Tell me why."

She's chuckling bitterly for a moment, until she answers. "Well, yes, I'm angry. You know, I'm getting totally screwed over here."

"Uh-huh." The man beside her says conversationally.

"The deal was that if I win the Hunger Games, I get to live the rest of my life in peace. But now, you want to kill me again." She gives a short snort of bemusement, going on to cuss everyone out. "Well, you know what? Fuck this! I fuck anybody who had anything to do with this!"

"Alright then…" Caesar looks disturbed after Johanna's moved to stand beside the other Victors. "One woman's opinion. Who's next?"

Boredly, I wonder out of the room. Only when it gets quiet in there, I do actually go back in. I find myself looking at Katniss when I look at the screen. She actually looks pretty stunning in that wedding gown. Apparently Caesar thinks so too.

"Katniss Everdeen." He says, taking her hand. "You look _fabulous_! Doesn't she?" The crowd cheers loudly. "My, my! Woo, woo, woo! Now Katniss, this is a very big and very emotional night. For all of us. Wouldn't you say?" He holds the microphone in her direction.

"Don't go crying on me now Caesar." Katniss tells him.

"I can't make any promises, you know me." He answers.

Katniss laughs. "Well, you know I wouldn't believe you even if you did."

Caesar and the crowd burst out in laughter. "I love it! The girl on fire is so cheeky." Once he finishes laughing, he turns back to her. "But Katniss, on a more serious note, I think we're all here a little disappointed- more than a little disappointed- that a certain wedding did not take place. Aren't we folks?" "Awws" come from the sponsors. "Alas. But, am I correct in assuming that this is the gown that you would have worn on that day, yes or no?"

"Yes. President Snow thought everyone would want to see it." She answers calmly.

"Well, President Snow, as usual, was right." He breaks into a grin and laughs merrily again. "Was he not, folks? I love it! I love it! Don't you love it folks?" He gestures to Katniss' dress. "Would you the honors? Please, please."

Caesar steps back. Katniss begins to spin. Her whole gown slowly transforms with the fire, the white being burnt away into a completely different outfit.

"Oh my god!" The interviewer exclaims. Now Katniss has finished spinning. Her gown is now a black dress. As she raises her arms, she reveals black and white wings. "It's like a bird. It's like a...ooh, the feathers! It's like a...it's like a bird. It's like a-a m-"

"Like a mockingjay." Katniss fills in for him.

My heart sinks, because I know she's right. _Cinna, what have you done? Snow's gonna kill him for this…_Because Katniss Everdeen is a mockingjay; and the symbol of the growing rebellion.

"Your stylist certainly has outdone himself this time, hasn't he?" Caesar calls him out. "Cinna! Take a bow!"

A camera focuses on Cinna, who is in the middle of the crowd. And he does take a bow, one hand in the air. As he comes back up, he touches his hand to his lips and then gestures towards Katniss. As the clapping dies down, Katniss makes her way to line up next to the other Victors. I find it interesting that she's next to Chaff, because she seemed to despise him earlier today. Not that they have a choice which order to be in anyway.

Then it occurs to me that it's my turn. I wait to be announced.

"Please welcome, you know him as the fighter of District Twelve- the Victor of the second Quarter Quell, Haymitch Abernathy!"

_Still sticking with that title, are we? _I ask myself as I emerge onto the stage. I walk up to Caesar's side, unphased by the crowd's cheering. I wait for the man next to me to speak first.

"I can't believe that it's been twenty-five years since your victory." He says. "Now, Haymitch, that was quite an entrance to last year's Reaping. Care to explain?"

"Forgot that I was on camera." I tell him.

The crowd laughs and even I crack a small smile for a moment.

"You've had quite some time to work with last year's Victors." Caesar tells me. "What's been going on with them since last year?"

Time to drop the bombshell. "Well, you know they were going to get married. But what you don't know is that they actually did."

The crowd gasps audibly.

The interviewer looks excited. "Do tell."

"After the Quell was announced, they knew that no matter what, she was going back in. So he suggested to her that they get married in secret." I continue. "They want their love to be eternal, arena or not."

"And is it?" Caesar asks.

"Oh, definitely." If anyone thought the wedding was shocking, then they're going to be absolutely blown away by what I'm about to say. "But that's not all."

The crowd's quiet, listening intently. Caesar raises his eyebrows. "What else do we not know about?"

"Tomorrow you're sending a to-be mother into the arena." I tell them, showing no emotion on my face. Lying was suddenly getting fun.

The crowd gasps, a few shouts coming. Caesar struggles to quiet them down, his voice hardly getting over the shouts of,"Stop the Games!"

"Alright, this is news!" He holds a hand up to the crowd, but it doesn't work. "Let's find out more!"

I gesture at them to shut up. They do. Apparently being the winner of the last Quell makes me have some effect over them. "She's only a couple of months in, but...they'll make good parents _if she gets through this_."

"How do you feel about Katniss and Peeta in general?" Caesar asks.

"They're a pain, especially when I'm dealing with both at once. Half the time they don't listen to me. It's annoying." The crowd laughs slightly. "But, they're like a son and daughter to me. Like, you know, I care about them. Never felt this way with any of the other tributes."

There's a few "aww"s.

"Would you say that you have a good chance of winning another Games _and _Quarter Quell?" He asks me.

I shake my head. "No, no chance at all. I'm not rooting for myself this year, either. But I'll be satisfied as long as my killer feels quite a bit of pain before I leave the world. As long as I die with some pride or honor. I am _not _going without a fight."

"Honest man!" Caesar exclaims, patting my shoulder. "May the odds be _ever _in your favor."

"Thank you." I say with a small smile.

He grabs my hand, twists our arms, and holds them in the air. "Haymitch Abernathy, the fighter of District Twelve!"

The crowd cheers and whoops. I make my way up to the other Victors, taking my place beside Katniss, holding my head high. She gives me a glance, taking my hand. Curious, I turn to see what she's doing. Slowly, one by one, every Victor grabs hands. We do something incredible and dangerous. All twenty-four of us hold our hands in the air to show that we are united. United for what? _Against _what? Against the Capitol and the Games.

The majority of the cheers turn to shouts and protests. "Stop the Games!" erupts even more loudly than it had a few minutes ago. Caesar doesn't know what to do. The lights go out suddenly. Each and every light. But it's too late for what we did to be unseen. We are one against the ways of the Capitol.

Slowly, the crowd begins screaming. I hear them scrambling to leave. Then it's silent except for the marching of boots towards us. Peacekeepers. They force us backstage, where it's all dark too, minus some lanterns. We're lead towards the elevators. We ride in groups of six. Katniss and I head up with Districts Ten and Eleven. We get off first, quietly nodding good night to the other four tributes, who return it. Cinna, Portia, Effie, and Peeta are waiting for us.

"Good job." Katniss' stylist praises us. "Even if they don't stop the Games, we'll have sympathy for Katniss on our side. And that means more sponsors."

"That's exactly why I said what I did." I say. "There's no way they'll cancel the Games."

"Yeah, but how do I pretend to be two months pregnant?" Katniss asks.

"Haven't you seen pregnant women come to your mother?" I remind her. "Just do what they do."

"Only when they're about to give birth." She says. "And that's overdramatic for two months."

"Katniss." Peeta speaks up. "Just hold your stomach when you fall or something."

"You can do that, right?" I ask, glancing over at her.

The girl on fire rolls her eyes. "Yes, Haymitch." She nods at Peeta. "I'll do that."

"Good." Cinna says. "You two should probably change and try to get as much sleep as you can before tomorrow."


	9. Into the Arena

The original four of us are gathered in front of the elevator; Effie, Peeta, Katniss, and I. That's because it's the morning of the Games and it's time for us to depart. But never without a goodbye. Effie had insisted, saying she had our tokens waiting.

"Presents, for the boys." She says, handing Peeta and I each a black box.

"What is this?" I ask, having momentarily forgotten, as I open the box to find a golden ring.

"Your token, remember?" Effie answers. "Hair for me, pin for Katniss, ring for you, gold bangle for Peeta."

"Thank you, Effie." Peeta tells her, giving a grateful smile.

"We're a team, aren't we?" She reminds us. Katniss nods. Effie wipes at her eyes. "And I'm so proud of my Victors." She gives both Katniss and I hugs. "So proud. So...well, you both deserved so much better." She's trying so hard not to cry that it actually hurts me.

"Thank you, Effie." Katniss almost whispers.

"I am truly sorry." The escort lets out an almost sob and walks away.

I watch her go for a moment, before turning back to face Peeta. No words as exchanged as the younger man hugs each of us. He briefly kisses Katniss, before he turns to walk away. He soon vanishes from sigh as well.

The girl on fire and I enter the elevator and I press the button for the prep floor. It's deathly quiet, except for the hum of the elevator as it moves. I stand with my arms crossed, spirits low. We're going back into the arena within an hour; and there's nothing we can do about it. As the elevator begins to slow, I speak up.

"Katniss, when we're in the arena, remember who the real enemy is."

_Ping._

I walk towards my prep area without another word, leaving her to ponder what I'd said. I reach my prep team, who seem very aware of how likely I am to die within the next couple of weeks. They go over me once and then send me to Portia, who's thankfully in one piece, unlike the others. She has me put on a long sleeved silver and black outfit. It reminds me of a sweatsuit.

"Tropics?" I ask.

She shrugs. "I don't get to see the arena until you do. But it seems so."

"Ah." I say, fastening the strangely thick belt around my waist.

We enter the elevator and go up to the roof. There's a hovercraft waiting. She gives me a small smile of farewell and I climb aboard. I sit among the other tributes, Katniss across from me. The two Peacekeepers go watching us go around and inject our trackers. It doesn't sting much, but more than I remember. I don't react to it though. I'm leaning forward, elbows on my knees.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, we're landing. They take us off by District, Twelve to One. I enter the building and walk down the long hallway to the last room, marked Twelve. Katniss enters the one room next to mine. I finally open the door and go into my own room after a long moment. I nearly freeze when I see who's waiting for me. It's Cassidy, the woman who mentored me for the last Quell. She's so much older now; wrinkles on her face and grayed hair.

"Haymitch." She greets me with a small smile.

"Cassidy." I say as I close the door and walk up to her. "What are you doing here?"

"Just because you're not from my District doesn't mean that I can't see one of my past tributes." She says. "Besides, I had to say goodbye."

I embrace her in a hug. "I've missed you."

"I know." She tells me as we separate. "How've things been?"

"Worst twenty-five years of my life." I answer. "Living on my own isn't easy."

"But what about- Oh. So they did have them executed then?" Cassidy realizes the truth.

"You could say that." I reply, forcing back a pang of grief. I shake my head. "It doesn't matter now. I'm likely to die in there within a matter of days."

"Thirty seconds to launch." A voice came through a loudspeaker.

"Last time you said that you outlasted forty-seven other children." She reminds me. "Haymitch, you're underestimating yourself again. You haven't changed much in twenty-five years. If I still know you as well as I think I do, you'll find a way for everything to work."

"Twenty seconds to launch."

"I hope you're right, Cass." I say, walking over to the circular plate waiting for me. I position myself under the hole that is going to take me up to the arena.

"I know I am." Cassidy tells me. "Good luck, Haymitch."

"Thank you, Cassidy." I give a small smile.

"Ten seconds to launch."

She returns the smile. The glass tube closes around me. Strangely, the pedestal doesn't go up when it should. I raise my eyebrows in confusion, crossing my arms. Cass seems just as puzzled. Whatever the cause was, it wouldn't be any good. Then the pedestal bursts to life, pushing me upwards; into the arena.

My eyes burn from the intense sunlight. I blink a few times and they adjust quickly. A saltwater lake comes into focus. The cornucopia is in the middle of the lake, on a roundish island. Coming from the island are spokes, dividing the lake into twelve different sections, which I'm guessing are to represent each District. Each spoke seems to go directly from the cornucopia to the beach. Evenly space among each other and the spokes, are the pedestals. It doesn't even take a moment to comprehend that I'll have to swim to get to one of the spokes. I look beyond the beach to see a dense jungle. This arena is something special, that's for sure. Suddenly I know that this'll be an interesting year.

I look around for my District member. She's on the pedestal next to mine, looking very upset. I'm almost worried. Then it all starts adding up. Cinna was the one to see her off. He's told me that he would himself. What he did to her dress last night when she spun and the lack of response of the pods. It only made sense what had happened. Peacekeepers had either seriously injured or killed Cinna in the few extra seconds we waited. _Well, shit._

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

The gong goes off and I immediately dive into the water. I start swimming before I reach the surface, but somehow I end up there anyway. I focus on making it to the spoke nearest to me, on my left. I reach it. I don't give myself a break to catch my breath before I climb to my feet and take off towards the cornucopia. I decide not to full on sprint because the path is rocky and I'm likely to accidentally trip by catching my foot on something.

I make it to the cornucopia in less than two minutes. I duck inside of it and snatch a knife, just in time to turn to my first _attacker. _It's Finnick. He raises his hands and I spot Peeta's gold bangle on his wrist. I give him a quick nod.

"Hurry up and grab a weapon, we gotta hold them off until Katniss gets here." I order him.

"Got it." He nods.

He appears back next to me a few moments later, a trident clasped in his hands. I get a good grip on my knife. Katniss reaches us moments later, not acknowledging either Finnick or I. She quickly locates a bow and a sheath of arrows that she throws over her shoulder. She takes a few shots at the incoming tributes, hitting the calf of Gloss. He dives into the water to get away. She turns on Finnick, apparently having just noticed him.

She aims the bow at his chest, but he holds up the arm with the bangle. "Lucky thing we're allies. Right?"

I see the male tribute from District Five approaching as Katniss sizes Finnick up. I prepare to throw my knife, but I never get the chance. Instead, the young man from Four orders her to duck and spears his trident at the other man from over her head. I watch the man fall to the ground.

"Don't trust One and Two." Finnick says as he pulls his trident from the body.

"Look for anything useful." I tell them. "I'll watch the entrance of this thing."

They do as I say. I know it because I hear weapons clanging as they were moved aside or knocked to the ground. My heart sinks slightly. By what I hear, there's nothing other than weapons. My theory's confirmed when Finnick speaks up.

"Anything useful?" He asks Katniss.

I don't get to hear her answer because suddenly someone's barging into me, violently knocking me to the ground. I drop my knife, and the other tribute is quickly holding it at my throat. I kick him off, but he has a tight grip on the knife. We both get up quickly and are soon locked in hand to hand combat. Our arms and fists are slamming into one another as fast as lightning. This is risky for the both of us; I have allies and he has a knife now.

The blade slashes the air inches from my face and I recoil a bit. I regain myself quickly and within a moment the other tribute and I are back at it again. I throw a punch at him, but he catches it. The tribute, who I've identified is from District Nine, attempts to slash his knife at me, but I snatch his wrist. Our arms are now rendered useless. He does the only thing that comes to his mind- he headbutts me. I stumble back in pain and confusion, but it's too big of a slip-up.

A much greater pain pierces the skin above my right eye, tearing through the skin of my face all the way through the bridge of my nose and into my left cheek. I cry out, but regain myself quickly, catching the man's wrist as he swung the, now bloody, knife again. Blood blinds my right eye. I punch him across the face before he can react. His head snaps to the side. Then he sees Katniss and Finnick coming to my aid. His eyes widen, he yanks his arm free, and he races off. I watch him go, scowling angrily.

"Grab anything you want, get Mags, and let's get as far from here as possible,"I say to my companions. I wipe blood from my eye, muttering to myself,"Dammit. Can't see."

They obey, Katniss reluctantly. I watch her put another quiver-full of arrows into her own and snatches up a few knives for close combat. I slide four knives of my own in between my pants and the belt. I find a nice looking spear to take along too. My assumption was right; all weapons in the cornucopia. By the time I've loaded up, Finnick is heading back with Mags on his back. He grabs a couple of knives, in case he somehow loses his trident. He offers Mags one, but she refuses it. I glance back to make sure that Katniss is ready to head off into the jungle; she is.

"Let's go, the Careers will regroup and get here soon." I say. "Don't want to be here when they do."

No one moves.

"Haymitch-" Katniss speaks up, but I interrupt her.

"Are you coming or should I leave you here for the Career pack?" I scowl.

"I'm coming." She says, sighing.

"That's what I thought." I don't know if I'm replying to her or if I say it because I see the four Careers standing together on one of the spokes. The others follow my gaze. "We're not going that way." I tell them.

The four of us leave the cornucopia and head around the back of it. We head down a spoke in the opposite direction of the Careers. I doubt they'll follow us anyway, they'll be too preoccupied killing the lingering tributes with the weapons they gather. We travel silently, Katniss in front and me in back. We reach the beach and walk up to the jungle line, entering the trees. We trek another good mile deep into the lush greenness, until Finnick requests a rest. It's obvious to me that it's more for old Mags than for himself.

"Anyone see any signs of water on the way here?" I ask as we sit down, wiping sweat and blood from my eye. "Don't think any of us need to nearly die of dehydration like Katniss here almost did last year. It doesn't help that it's so humid."

"No." Finnick and Katniss say together, while Mags shakes her head.

"Make sure to keep an eye out for it then as we move." I order.

"Will do." Finnick says, stretching his back.

I lean against the trunk of a tree, attempting to wipe some of the blood from my face. I feel my wound sting at the lightest touch and sigh. It's deep, which is a great explanation to why it hasn't stopped bleeding yet. I wonder how the man from Nine is faring; Did the Careers catch him? Is he somewhere in the jungle too?

The first cannon blasts me from my thoughts. More follow in succession. They continue for a few seconds and I count a total of eight when they stop. Sixteen tributes left. _How many of them were going to help us get Katniss out? How many of them weren't? Did Chaff make it? How about the man from Nine who sliced my face open?_

"Well, I guess we're not holding hands anymore." Finnick laughs.

"You think that's funny?" Katniss growls.

"Every time that cannon goes off, it's music to my ears." He tells her. "I don't care about any of them."

"Good to hear." She replies, pulling out a long knife I'd classify as a sword.

"Wanna face the Career pack alone?" The young man threatens. "What would Haymitch say?"

"I'd go with you and Mags." I cut in sarcastically.

"So what's our next plan of action?" Katniss addresses all three of us, ending that conversation there.

"I think we should find Johanna." Finnick says.

"She's too trigger happy." I disagree. "How about the two from Three; Beetee and Wiress?"

"How about something more important than allies." Katniss suggests. We look at her curiously. "Water."

"Brilliant idea." I agree.

Finnick decides to add his input. "Why didn't I think about that?"


	10. The Spile & The Fog

After another half hour of trekking through the jungle- slowly because Finnick's carrying Mags- we still haven't found any sign of water. I'm confused; how are the trees and plants growing without water? Unless they're artificial trees- which I know they're now- they need water. Perhaps the water is beneath the surface somewhere? Could very well be so.

There's only one thing good that's happened since we started moving again; my cut has finally stopped bleeding. The remaining blood on my face- and the arm that wiped it- is hardening into a layer of red crust on my skin. It's itchy and irritating, but I don't dare scratch at the blood on my head, as opening my wound would be one of the worst things that could happen now; I don't need to go by bleeding to death.

I suddenly come to a halt as I see a strange shimmering in the air, the kind that would remind you of the radiation or heat reflecting off the ground. But I know that what I see is no heat reflection; it's a forcefield.

"Why'd we stop?" Finnick asks.

Katniss knows. "There's a forcefield up ahead."

"How can you tell?" He seems curious to know.

I decide that it won't hurt to tell him and point it out. "The shimmering."

"How do you know it isn't the heat?" He questions.

"Because,"I say, looking for something throwable. I settle on a nut-looking thing. "Heat doesn't do,"I toss it at the forcefield. It flies back at us like a missile and we scatter as it cracks open on a tree,"That."

"Oh." He manages, staring at the cracked nut. "Is that edible?"

I shrug. "Don't know."

Mags slides off of Finnick's back and slowly walks over to the nut. She bends over, picks it up, and pops it into her mouth. Her District member and I exchange glances. After a moment, she's chewing on both halves of the nut.

"Mags!" Katniss scolds. "Spit that out. It could be poisonous."

Mags swallows it, disobeying Katniss. I crack a smile at that. Finnick clearly finds it amusing, too, because he laughs.

"I guess we'll find out." He says.

We fall silent. Nothing happens to Mags; she doesn't kneel over dead, nor does her face turn purple. The nuts are safe. I sit down against a tree and take out one of my four knives, twisting it around and around in my hands. Katniss glances at a tree and begins to climb it. No one questions what she's doing; Finnick is too busy throwing nuts at the forcefield for Mags to eat. _Outsmarted by tributes using a forcefield again, Snow. What do you think? _I don't want to know.

A sound that reminds me of thunder cracks through the forcefield, running from way up where own to right beside us. I look up and make an assumption that Katniss had shot the forcefield to figure out the shape of the arena or something of the sort. A few minutes later, I spot her climbing down the tree.

"The forcefield has us trapped in a circle. A dome, really." She says as she walks over to us. "I don't know how high it goes. There's the cornucopia, the sea, and then the jungle all around. Very exact. Very symmetrical. And not very large."

"Did you see any water?" Finnick asks hopefully, stopping his nut throwing to look at her.

"Only the saltwater where we started the Games." Katniss tells him.

"There must be some other source." I say. "Seriously, look at these trees; they're too healthy to have no water."

"Maybe there are ponds or springs somewhere." She says doubtfully.

I shake my head. "Unlikely. I also don't think this is true, but there could be fresh water in between the forcefield and the saltwater lake."

"I doubt it." Finnick agrees with my disagreement. "It wouldn't hurt to try, but I bet that the Careers are on the beach."

"They probably are." I tell him. "Let's eat some of these nuts and then head back in their direction, I guess."

No one objects. Finnick gets back to _cooking _the nuts on the forcefield, Katniss counts her arrows, Mags eats nuts, and I turn my knife over and over again. We sit in silence for the longest time, just waiting. Eventually, there's a good sized pile of cooked nuts. We divide them up and each get to eating our rations. The nuts don't have much of a taste, but they remind me of almonds. _Not bad._

We finish eating, not moving for another five minutes after. Katniss is the first one to get up, swinging her sheath of arrows onto her back. I return my knife to its position between my belt and pants, grabbing my spear as I get to my feet. Finnick helps Mags onto his back and grabs his trident.

The girl on fire leads the way back towards the center of the arena. The sky grows dark long before we even get close to the treeline. We stop and decide to spend the night where we are. Finnick offers to take first watch, but Katniss forcefully insists that she does. He lets her.

I hear the Panem anthem and look up at the sky through the trees. I look at the faces in the night sky, recognizing each of them. The male from Five, the male from Six, both from Eight, both from Nine, the woman from Ten, and Seeder from Eleven are all dead. The Capitol seal reappears as the anthem ends and then the sky is dark again. I'm satisfied that the man who cut my face is dead. The bad news is that several of our scattered alliance are now dead.

No one says anything, because there's nothing to say. Katniss continues her shift of watch as the rest of us try to get some rest. None of us really actually sleeps, but we do get some shut eye until we hear a familiar ringing noise; a sponsor parachute.

Katniss scrambled over to it, Finnick and I right behind her. She opens the lid. There's a familiar looking silver object sitting inside. I know what it is immediately and my face splits into a grin.

"Peeta, you're a lifesaver." I say, taking the object from the casing.

"What is it?" Katniss asks, clueless.

"The difference between life and death." I tell her, getting up and walking over to a tree. I draw a knife from my belt and stab it into the smooth surface of the tree. I twist it in deeper. I pull it out, put the object in its place and push hard. I let out a triumphant laugh as water spurts from the tree, coming out through the object. "It's a spile!"

"Oh my God." Finnick gasps, grinning. "Peeta's a genius. The water was never on the ground, it's been in the trees the whole time, hidden from us!"

I sheath my knife. "Seems so."

The four of us take turns drinking, refreshing our cracked tongues and throats. We settle back down, more refreshed- more comfortable- than ever since we entered the arena. I sigh in relief as I lay back in between the roots of a tree, closing my eyes. I might just be able to sleep like this. I take a deep breath of the jungle night air. I feel calm, which is strange. This is the Hunger Games, where kids- well, not all kids this year- are sentenced to fight to the death annually. I feel myself dozing off into a light slumber.

_Bong! Bong! Bong! _It's what wakes me up. The others are sitting up attentively, looking as puzzled as I felt. It goes on for several more seconds before stopping.

"I counted twelve." Katniss says.

"What? Midnight?" Finnick asks quietly.

"Or the number of Districts." She tells him.

There's a sound that reminds me of something charging up. We all look in the direction it happens to be coming from. What we see is a dark cloud above an extra tall tree. Lightning is forming in the cloud. The lightning strikes down with an electrical crackle onto the tree, continuing on seemingly endlessly. My eyes sting from the sudden light. What confuses me is that the tree doesn't catch fire; it just sits there and takes the hits. _Interesting. _

I hear Finnick say something to Katniss, but I can't make it out over the thunder. He gets up with his trident and walks over to another tree to lay down. He settles down and closes his eyes.

I take a deep breath, sighing. I pull my knees towards me and rest my elbows on them, holding my head in my hands. Yeah, sure, my head hurts from Nine's headbutt and the long gash across my face, but that's not the problem; the sanity is. It's been a long day of nearly getting gored and practically dehydrating- I'm surprised how logical my thinking's been. It's after dark and I'm still so hot that I'm sweating. The sweat stings my wound.

I reach a hand up tentatively and finger the long, deep cut. My hand is covered with sweat and blood when I pull it back. The wound hasn't been bleeding for hours, so I know that the sweat is making the crusty hard blood wetten again. I wipe my hand on my pants, straighten my legs, cross my arms, and lean back into the roots of the tree.

I hear something shift and then footsteps. I look up, seeing Katniss walking towards me. She sits down next to me. I decide to ignore her unless she starts a conversation. Of course, she does.

"Haymitch."

"Katniss."

"How's that cut?" She asks.

"Deep." I answer.

"How deep?" She questions.

"Deep enough for me to question how it's stopped bleeding." I say. "Guess I'm lucky that he didn't hit an eye with that knife."

"Like you did to the girl from One back in your first Games." She surprises me by remembering.

"Yeah." I agree. "Just like that. That would've been a disaster. Slowly bleed to death like she would've if she hadn't thrown that axe."

"You would've died first." Katniss tells me.

"Actually, you're probably right." I realize. "I was pretty much dying when she threw it."

"You should probably sleep while you can, Haymitch. Your watch is after Finnick's." She gets up and walks back to where she'd been before, sitting down against the tree.

I decide to take her advice. I grip the handle of my spear as I close my eyes. I take a deep breath of the humid jungle air and silently listen to the sounds; the others sleeping, the animals croaking and chirping, even the trees rustling.

I'm just being pulled in by the tendrils of sleep when everything goes deathly silent. I hear Katniss moving. A few moments later, I hear a sizzling sound and a cry of pain. My eyes snap open immediately and I haul myself to my feet, snatching the spile from its tree. Katniss shouts for the others to run and that the fog is poison. I turn to look at what she meant by fog and I saw it. It was more of an unnatural travelling mist. _Unnatural. _This is the Gamemakers' doing.

Finnick loads Mags onto his back, grabs his trident, and the four of us take off in the opposite direction of the fog, which tails us the whole way. We duck under logs caught on other trees and leap over the ones laying flat on the ground. I manage to slam my face into a thin low branch and my wound starts bleeding again. We enter a clearing, where Finnick collapses, screaming as the fog made blistering bubbles form on his skin. I turn back to help him.

"Take Mags for me." He begs as I pull him to his feet.

I agree, helping the elderly woman onto my back. Surprisingly, she's not that heavy. She throws her arms around my neck to ensure she wouldn't fall off. It's not enough. I need to hold her in place with my hands. I have no choice but to leave the spear behind. I throw it down and support Mags' legs. Once I have a decent hold, we take off again.

We race through the clearing, the fog tearing at our backs. I feel it make contact with my legs. It stings _badly_. I can feel my legs bubbling. I grit my teeth as a cry out in pain, my legs giving out. Mags and I tumble to the ground. Finnick and Katniss turn back for us. He tries to carry Mags again, but he can't. Katniss points out that she can't carry the both of us.

In the few seconds when none of us knows what to do, Mags stands up. She kisses Finnick and turns toward the fog, walking towards it. Finnick screams her name, but it's too late. She's entered the fog already. A moment later, a cannon sounds. _Oh, Mags...why did you do that?_

Katniss yells at the young man to get his attention. They come to an agreement and get up, grabbing me. They drag me between them and head away from the fog. They stumble along and we're soon in the trees again. But the increase of undergrowth only slows us down even more. The poison fog pierces our backs and we cry out. Katniss and Finnick's legs give out next and we're tumbling down a hill we never saw. I manage to get myself onto my back. I watch the fog, preparing myself for my doom, when just a few inches away from us it goes straight up, as if there were an invisible wall there. I let out a inaudible sigh of relief and collapse back onto the ground. I close my eyes as I try to regain my breath. My body would be completely still if my limbs weren't constantly twitching, but there was nothing I can do about that.

I hear a cry of pain. It's Katniss. "The water...it helps."

I flip onto my stomach and use my arms to weakly drag myself in her direction. I can see the pool of saltwater she's in. I reach the small sandy bank in front of it and then force myself it. At first, it hurts and I cry out, but within moments I can feel function return to my legs. The rest of my body is given instant relief and I dunk of head under to rid my face of any poison bubbles.

I get to my feet and wade through the pool, towards the sand. I climb onto solid land and go to Finnick's side. He hasn't moved since we tumbled. Katniss comes over and we silently agree to throw him in the water. We each take one of the young man's arms and drag him down to the pond. We gently toss him in. He rolls over onto his back and pops back up, gurgling water as he attempts to shout in pain. I watch Katniss dunk his head under the water.

I know that he'll be alright, but he'll still be upset over Mags' unfortunate fate.


	11. The Hero & More Allies

The first thing I do once Finnick's taken care of is stick the spile in a tree and hammer it in with a knife. Katniss sees to making sure she's still got most, if not all, of her arrows. Odair fiddles with his trident as he mourns Mags. I count my knives and find that I still have all four. That means that the only weapon I lost was the spear when I tried to help Mags. I wetten my hand under the stream of water- more like a tiny waterfall, really- and gently rub it on my wound. It stings for a moment, but it passes. Slowly, I rub the blood and sweat from the gash. I hope that it'll help it heal faster.

"I'm sorry about Mags." I hear Katniss say to Finnick.

"She was never gonna make it." The young man tells her after a moment. "So…"

They fall silent and I can hear the water sloshing as they get up. I think I might've even heard Finnick whisper something. I'm taking the spile out of the tree when I hear Katniss call my name.

"What now?" I ask wearily, scowling.

I turn to see her and Finnick aiming their weapons around. They're in the middle of the pond. My eyes narrow and I turn around, only to be face-to-face with some sort of monkey. My eyes widen in surprise and I flinch back. It lets out some sort of roar and I draw a knife, slowly backing up to my two allies. Upon looking around, I see that there are at least fifteen of the creatures.

"Get to the beach." Katniss tells us.

When the first monkey leaps at us, I know that these are mutts that the Gamemakers have created. Katniss shoots it down, and then the whole group goes wild. My District member is shooting arrows this way and that, the screams of the mutts signifying hits. Finnick swings his trident to whack the monkey-like beasts away and I'm stabbing them with my knife. Their screams and roars fill the air.

One of the creatures jumps on me, knocking me over. Luckily, I'm sitting upright and my head isn't under the water. I stab the creature through the chest, pushing the body off of me. I get to my feet as quick as I can. I look up again, but I don't see Katniss. I do see a monkey trying to bite at something under the water. I throw a knife into the creature and it goes limp. I pull it off of Katniss and pull her out of the water, into a standing position, drawing another knife.

"We have to get to the beach!" I shout above the screeches, pushing her in that direction.

As the three of us are racing away from the pond- Finnick a little behind- the monkeys give chase. One manages to push both Katniss and I over, going for the kill on her. I try to get to my feet, but I know that I won't be fast enough.

But _she _is. The female morphling leaps out from hiding and in front of the girl on fire. She takes the killing blow for her, her screams filling the air. I leap forward and stab the beast atop of her, as Finnick and Katniss fend off other monkeys. They look at the morphling.

"Who is that?" Katniss asks, obviously having not recognized her savior yet.

"The morphling!" I tell her. There's not enough time to tell her that she saved her. "Help me get her!"

Katniss grabs one of her arms, I grab the other. Finnick follows, fighting off the monkey-mutts, as we drag the injured woman towards the beach. She speed up into a run, still dragging the woman. I can see the light of the sunrise through the last few trees. We burst out onto the sand, the young man from Four throwing himself out of the jungle after us.

He gets to his feet as Katniss and I lay the morphling out on the water. I turn back to help Finnick, but he doesn't need any. The mutts are just standing at the edge of the jungle, still screeching. I glance back at Katniss, who's trying to comfort the dying morphling. I know it's not her thing, but she's not doing a bad job.

"It's okay. Shh, shh. Do you want to see something?" I have to admit, she actually does sound soothing. The morphling quiets down her gasping a moaning to listen. "Look up. Look." They both do and even I glance up. "It's beautiful, isn't it? All of those colors. Don't worry about anything else. I'm right here with you. It's okay."

She sounds so much like Peeta in this moment; Katniss does.

The morphling slowly falls silent. I glance down at her, seeing her eyes staring into the colorful, digital sky. And I instantly know that she's gone. Katniss gently rests her on the surface of the water just as the cannon goes off. At the same time, the mutts turn and vanish back into the jungle. Finnick watches them go, still poising his trident just in case.

Seeing the hovercraft in the distance, I motion for Katniss to retreat back up to the beach. She does, giving the body one last glance. Another minute later, the hovercraft swoops in, the claws slowly coming down. They grasp around the lifeless body of the morphling. Finnick has finally stopped watching the jungle for mutts and glances at the hovercraft.

"She sacrificed herself for you." I tell Katniss quietly.

She looks at me, trying to detect any trace of a lie embedded in my features. She sees none. "And I didn't even know her name."

I'd tell her, but I know she'd only feel more guilt over it. So I don't.

The metal claws of the hovercraft have retracted fully and it begins to ascend again. The metal doors close as it takes off, with the morphling inside. I know that we owe that woman our lives now. She did what Finnick and I could not in that moment; she saved Katniss. Johanna was right when she told me that the morphling had joined the alliance. And I'd doubted it partially. _Fool._

I spot Odair fishing with his trident and get up, finally sheathing my knife. The only thought I had was how long a night it had really been. First the fog and then the mutts. And I'd only lost one of my knives through that. And there were still three of us left of our small group. We all knew that we'd lose Mags, but it still came as a shocker when we really did lose her. At least she had died quickly, not in too much pain.

Finnick comes back up the beach with three decent sized fish in his hand, trident in the other. We sit down just under the shade of the trees and each begin skinning our own meal. Because we're not near the forcefield and don't want to advertise our location with a fire, we eat the food raw. It doesn't taste _that _bad. Everything's quiet and calm for the moment.

The sun's well up when screaming erupts from across the lake, in the trees. We all glance up in that direction, suddenly tense.

"That's new." I say as we all get up.

We hear a crashing sound and I narrow my eyes. I can barely see what looks like water just under the tree tops, heading down towards the lake. A flood? We watch, horrified, as a large wave of water bursts from the trees. A cannon sounds. The water rides upon the surface of the lake smoothly, until it goes up the cornucopia and separates, water mixing with that of the other sections. The small wave in the section before us comes up to our ankles, even though we're against the trees. The water retracts back into the lake, which seems fuller than before.

We see the hovercraft returning at the very edge of the trees. The claws reach down, coming back up with a body. I can't distinguish who it is from this distance. The hovercraft takes in the body and then flies over us on its way to drop off the body- probably at the Capitol.

"Someone's here." Katniss suddenly draws an arrow and looks to our right.

Finnick and I glance in that direction, my hand on the hilt of a knife. I can see three figures on the beach, heading for the sand. It looks like Wiress, Beetee, and Johanna, but something's not quite right. They're covered in a red substance. It doesn't seem to bug the man from Four though.

"Johanna…?" He takes off running in their direction. "Johanna!"

"Finnick!" She shouts back.

Amazed, a grin splits across my face. I take off after the younger man, Katniss following me more cautiously. I reach Johanna not long after Finnick.

"Well, we were all the way deep in the jungle where I thought it was gonna be _safe. _It's when the rain started." She explains the reason for their being red. "I thought it was water. It turned out to be blood. Hot, thick blood. It was coming down, it was choking us. We were stumbling around, gagging on it blind. That's when Blight hit the forcefield."

"Tick tock, tick tock." Wiress had come up behind Johanna, but she seemed stuck saying just those two words.

_What monster of an arena is this? _I wonder. Poison fog, monkey-mutts, huge floods, _blood rain_? _What else is here?_

"He wasn't much, but he was from home." Johanna says.

"Tick tock, tick tock." Wiress walks around near her.

"What's wrong with her?" Katniss asks the woman from Seven.

"She's in shock." Beetee answered from nearby, pain strained in his voice. He takes off his glasses. "Dehydration isn't helping. Do you have fresh water?"

"We can get some." Katniss assures him.

"Just...listen." Johanna says over Wiress. "Stop it!" She pushes the traumatized woman to the ground. "Sit down!"

"Hey!" My District member shouts, advancing on the other woman. "Get off her!"

"Just stay down!" Seven tells Three. Katniss grabs her throat. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Finnick pushes Johanna back from Katniss.

"I got them out for you!" She tells the girl on fire.

"It's okay, it's okay!" The man from Four tries to calm her down.

"For me?" Katniss freezes in confusion, turning towards me. "What does that mean?"

"Let me go!" Johanna demands of Finnick. "I'm fine."

"You did want them as allies." I remind the girl next to me.

Wiress stands up, a smile plastered on her face, as she looks at Katniss.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." My District member tells her, the pair of them walking off.

I sit down at the edge of the trees as Johanna and Beetee wash the blood from themselves. Katniss helps Wiress, as she's obviously not capable of much in her state. Finnick stands near Johanna, talking to her. I reach up to the cut on my face, where the blood around it is still damp. It'd clearly been bleeding, or at least trying to, during the monkey attack earlier. Remembering that the small group we encountered is dehydrated, I find a decent tree nearby to put the spile in.

Beetee comes up the beach a little while later, placing down a coil of wire. I watch as he unrolls the wire to rid the coil of water and then rolls it back up. Finnick leaves Johanna's side and comes to sit near me. I can hear Johanna talking to Katniss in the distance, but otherwise, the only noise is the water. I hear the water sloshing louder and look up again, seeing Johanna walking away from Wiress and the other girl. The woman from Three has started up again.

Suddenly, there's the familiar charging sound and lightning begins to strike the large tree. I'm looking at it, thinking about what it could mean, when I spot Katniss stop moving. She glances around the area sharply, a look of shock and realization upon her face.

"Wiress, you're a genius!" She exclaims. The pair of them hurry back to the rest of us. She begins to explain as we all head towards the cornucopia. "This entire arena seems to be laid out like a clock, with a new threat every hour. But they stay only within their wedge. It all starts with the lightning, then the blood rain, fog, monkeys. That's the first four hours. At ten, that big wave hits over there."

"Wiress, you're a genius." Finnick tells the woman as he walks past her on the spoke.

"The tail points at twelve." I say as we reach the cornucopia.

"That's where the lightning strikes at noon and midnight." Katniss confirms.

"It strikes where?" Beetee asks, clearly interested.

"That big tree." She points at it.

"Good." I can hear the excitement in his voice.

Wiress sits down, chanting some clock nursery rhyme. The rest of us head closer to the cornucopia to map out the sections of the arena.

"So, twelve to one, lightning." I say, drawing in the black sand with a knife. "And one to two is blood. Then fog, and then monkeys."

"And ten to eleven, the wave." Katniss adds. "And what about everything else? Did you guys see anything?"

"Nothing, but blood." Johanna says.

"Doesn't matter." I say. "As long as we stay clear of whatever section's active, we're safe."

"Yeah, relatively speaking." Finnick agrees, pointing out the fact that the Careers are still out there.

As if on queue, Wiress gasps. We turn to see Gloss pulling a knife from her shoulder.


	12. Spinning and Screaming

The cannon goes off. Katniss is the quickest to react, drawing her bow and an arrow from her quiver. She takes aim and fires before I can even blink. The arrow hits home dead center in Gloss' chest. He falls over backward, another cannon signaling his death.

The other careers spring into the action from God knows where. Four and I grab our weapons and head to meet them. I hear Finnick screaming in anger as he assaults Brutus. Enobaria intervenes to assist her District member. Finnick grunts in pain and Katniss misses an arrow at the careers, who vanish from view around the cornucopia. I head to check on Finnick as my own District member gives chase to the careers. _Reckless. _

Before much else could happen, the ground begins moving beneath us. We're thrown from our feet and I'm quick to grab a solid hold on the black rock. All I can hear is the rushing of the water and the others near me struggling to hold on. It doesn't even take me a moment to realize that we're _spinning_.

Finnick tumbles past me and I can see the fear in his eyes. I reach out and grab his arm in one quick movement. I don't let go until I see he has a solid hold of his own. I can see the appreciation in his gaze until it gets hidden by the fear.

I take a moment to look around for the others. I spot Johanna, and even closer to the water near her, Katniss. The poor girl's feet are nearly getting sucked in! I see Cashmere get pulled- it looked more like she rolled- into the water. At the speed we're swirling around in, there's no hope she'll survive that. Not that I want her to. I glance back to Johanna and Katniss, but Katniss isn't there. My eyes widen and I start muling over the possibilities. _Maybe she managed to climb up higher? Maybe Johanna knocked her off? Shut up. Stop assuming the worst. She's fine._

Then I swear we're moving even faster. Weapons fly out of the mouth of the cornucopia at Finnick and I. I panic. Now _this _is something I'd never expected. I roll, dodging and twisting. Only holding on with one arm, I could feel the tension growing in my body. A crate flies towards me and I don't have time to move. It slams into my shoulder and I'm forced to let go. I can feel myself propel through the air, and I can feel the hard rock scratching my skin.

And before I know it, I'm in the water. The salt stings my eyes. I'm still being jerked around by the same force making the cornucopia move. I'm so disoriented that I can't tell up from down and I feel nauseous. The pressure builds up in my lungs fast. _Plutarch, you're not supposed to kill _us!

A few long seconds pass before I feel the violent waves gradually slowing. I'm still too disoriented to tell which way is the right way to go. I squeeze my eyes shut to make everything stop spinning, blindly swimming around. I feel my leg come into contact with something and I turn to grasp onto it. I feel the damp rock beneath my fingers and pull myself closer towards it. Mistake.

Something sharp slams into my shoulder and I open my mouth to cry out, forgetting only my hand is above water. The saltwater rushes inside of my mouth and I feel it going down my throat against my will. In too much pain to think clearly, I head to the surface again. I break the surface, gasping and coughing as if I'd never breathe again.

"Haymitch!" I hear Katniss gasp from nearby. Her voice quickly turns to anger as she rounds on someone. "Why'd you do that, Johanna?! You could've killed him!"

"But I didn't!" I hear the other woman retort.

I finally open my eyes, blinking against the harsh glare of the sunlight. Everything's blurring as I move, still more than a little dizzy from my spin. I drag myself far enough onto the hard rock to collapse to catch my breath and gather my wits again. I see a dark shape moving towards me and suddenly Finnick's at my side.

"Twelve certainly does have water problems." He mutters. I'd have laughed if I wasn't one of the ones victim to the problem he spoke of. Then he says,"You alright?"

"Yeah." My throat is raw from the saltwater that had been forced through it. As a result, my voice was hoarse and laced with the exhaustion I felt. I'd have nodded instead if my vision had been steadier.

I listen to the shouting match between Katniss and Johanna. I can't hear Beetee's opinion in this and wonder where he is. Finnick doesn't say anything for a long moment. My vision slowly starts to clear up and I get to my feet just before Katniss attacks the other woman. She stops, seeing me being okay enough. My left arm hangs limply at my side. I can feel a liquid warmer than the water drenching me to the bone sliding down my shoulder. I try the basic test of clenching my fist- nothing.

Anger ripples through me, knowing that Johanna had done this. I grab one of my three remaining knives. How they survived all that twisting and turning, I have no clue. I stalk up to the woman, shouting at her now myself. "What _the hell _was that for?! Do you always walk around swinging that goddamn axe at the first movement you see?! You're lucky you didn't cut my _head _off!"

"I thought you were a career!" She shoots back.

"YOU SHOULD'VE WAITED TILL I WAS ON THE ROCK!" My anger is escalating quickly.

"AND GET KILLED WHEN YOU'RE ACTUALLY A CAREER?!" She snorts angrily. "YEAH, NOT HAPPENING!"

My rage overpowers my sense of logic and I fling the knife at her. She ducks and it barely misses skinning her back. She springs back up and charges me, axe swinging wildly. I grope around for another knife as I try to keep an eye on her. I find one and move back, just barely avoiding her sharp axehead. She swings again and I block it with the knife- barely. She's still pushing down, putting all of her weight into the blade. _Maybe if I move to the side…_

I move to my left, and she doesn't even see it coming. She's toppled over onto the hard rock within an instant. I tower over her, but in my tiny moment of satisfaction at her intimidated look, I don't see her legs move. Suddenly, my own have been swept to the side and I fall to the ground, on my left side. My injured shoulder screams at the pressure and I feel the trickling blood increase to a steady stream. My other arm is soon pinned behind my back at a dangerous angle- one that could result in one of the bones being snapped.

Finnick finally interferes, likely saving my right arm from serious injury. He pulls Johanna away from me and restrains her as she curses at him. Katniss tries to assist me, but I get up on my own anyway.

I pull a shiny object from my belt. When I speak, my voice is calmer than before, as most of my anger diminished in the brief fight. "Just remember that _I _have the _only _spile."

"Let's just get what we need and get off the bloody island." Johanna says, pulling free from Finnick.

Mood and face dark, I return the spile to my belt and head down one of the spokes. I don't bother to see if anyone's following- they'll come when they're ready. I do my best to keep my feet from dragging as I go along, but I'm too exhausted and in too much pain to do much. Even my mind isn't straight after nearly drowning. I stumble a few times as I walk, but I don't fall.

Upon reaching the beach, I sit down against the treeline. I remove the shirt of my outfit to inspect the wound. It's a deep cut, deeper than the one on my face. I'm not too surprised that the bleeding hasn't stopped yet. A newfound anger at Johanna springs up and I have to remind myself that I can't fight anyone and expect to win in this state.

Instead, I settle on hammering the spile into a tree and using the stream of water to clean my wounds. My eyes are momentarily blinded by water, sweat, and blood being rinsed off of me. I wipe it away as I pull back, doing the same to my newer wound. I could swear that I see the bone, with the blood being washed away. I push down the bile in my throat. I take a drink of water and remove the spile from the tree. I wrap the shirt around the deep cut in my shoulder, hoping it'll keep the bleeding at bay. I return the spile to my belt and lean back against the tree, the rough bark feeling strange on the bare skin of my back. I ignore the sensation and watch the others.

I can see them grabbing a few things from the hard rock and starting to come my way. Katniss is at the front of the group, Beetee at the rear. They look about as exhausted as I feel. The girl of fire, with her bow strapped around her body. Finnick's using his trident as a staff, clearly feeling the need of walking assistance. Even Johanna doesn't seem to care that her axe is banging against her leg as she goes along. _I had so much more time to relax during the last Quell._

They emerge onto the sand and sit down within the same area, near me. No one says anything for awhile, as we all take some time to wrap our minds around the last couple of days. We'd hardly had any down time since we've entered the arena. The bloodbath, the fog, the monkeys, the blood rain, the wave, the career attack, and then the spinning cornucopia island. If the Gamemakers are trying to kill us from stress and exhaustion, it's certainly working.

"So, besides Brutus and Enobaria, who's left?" Katniss asks, breaking the long silence.

"Maybe Chaff." I say, hopeful my friend's alive. "Just those three."

Finnick speaks up. "They know they're outnumbered. I doubt they'll attack again. We're safe here on the beach."

"So what do we do? We hunt them down?" Johanna's obviously impatient.

A scream comes from within the trees. "Katniss, help me!"

_What?!_

"PRIM!" She screams back, taking off into the trees.

"No...Katniss! Katniss!" Finnick gives chase, clearly knowing something she doesn't. "Wait!"

"PRIM! PRIM! PRIM!"

Johanna, Beetee, and I take off after them. The screaming continues. I hear what sounds like Katniss shooting an arrow not far ahead and the fluttering of wings. Then I know what Finnick knows. _Jabberjays_.

"Katniss!" Finnick calls, clearly closing in on her. "You okay?"

More screaming erupts, but it's not young Primrose this time.

"Finnick- no, it's not her!" Katniss shouts at him and I can hear them racing off.

"Annie! ANNIE!" Finnick bellows. "ANNIE! ANNIE!"

"Finnick!" Katniss attempts to get his attention. "It's not her! It's just a jabberjay, it's not her!"

"Well how do you think they got that sound?" He sounded distressed. "Jabberjays copy!"

"KATNISS!" It's the boy Thread whipped; Gale Hawthorne.

All three voices combine and scream the names of the two tributes. A mad flurry of wings can be heard too. We enter a clearing and see the two of them racing towards us. Katniss looked like she was about to burst into tears- the look on her face was so painful. She runs into an invisible wall not even a foot away from us. She panics.

"It's okay!" I shout at her. "They're just mutts! They're not real!"

It takes me a moment to realize that she can't hear me. She continues screaming, hands moving to cover her ears. She falls to her knees, hiding her face. I continue to shout at her in hopes of there being a way for her to hear me.

I'm beyond grateful when the hour of horror ends. The invisible wall disappears, but Katniss doesn't seem to take notice of anything- not even the fact that the jabberjays have gone away. She's still huddled on the ground, eyes shut, hands over her ears, shaking.

"It's okay! They're gone! The hour's gone! The hour's up! It's alright!" I tell her.

"Prim…!" She gasps out, turning and grabbing my arm.

"No, Prim's okay." I assure her.

"Are you okay?" I hear Johanna ask Finnick.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He practically whispers back, waving her off.

"Okay? They won't touch Prim." I promise Katniss. She seems a little calmer. "Alright?"

She nods.

"The alcoholic's right." I cringe at Johanna's words. "The whole country loves your sister. If _they _torture her or do anything to her, forget the Districts, there would be riots in the damn Capitol." She smiles in a bittersweet way, looking at Katniss, who stares back in shock. Then the woman does something incredibly stupid. "Hey, how does that sound, Snow? What if we- what if we set _your _backyard on fire?! You know, you can't put everybody in here!"

I smirk, humored by her words. _"What if we set _your _backyard on fire?!" Stunning how she can do that._

Everyone else stares at her, Beetee looking over his glasses with an unimpressed expression.

"What?" Johanna asks, shrugging. "Can't hurt me. There's no one left that I love." She sighs. "I'll get you some water."

My smirk fades and I pity her. She glances at me and I toss her the spile. She walks off, hacking at the jungle's grasses with her axe. She leaves us sitting there, reminiscing in her words.


	13. Failed Plans & Electric Arrows

I follow Finnick out onto the beach. He continues on to sit a couple of feet into the waves, while I sit under the protection of the treeline. The others settle down near me. It's all peacefully quiet for a long moment, the lapping of the waves soothing. Then there's the sound of Katniss' arrows moving in the quiver and we all tense up again, turning to see Johanna. She hands Katniss a gourd full of water.

"Thank you." She takes it.

Johanna settles down next to her, while Beetee fiddles with the sand behind me. It's quiet again, for another moment, as we all gaze at the lapping saltwater. It could've been an ocean if it was much larger. _Ocean._ It's unlikely I'll live long enough to ever see one.

"Who's Annie?" Katniss asks Johanna, breaking the silence.

She's silent for a moment. "Annie Cresta, the girl Mags volunteered for? She won like four- five years ago."

"Is she the one who went a little…" _Crazy?_

"Mhmm." The two share a nod. "Love is weird."

_Not really. Complicated's the right word._

"I have a plan." Beetee finally says.

Johanna gets up and walks towards the District Four tribute. "Finnick!"

"I have a plan." The man from Three repeats, nodding at Katniss. He pushes up his glasses. Finnick and Johanna rejoin us not even a minute after he says it. They remain standing. "Where do the Careers feel safest? The jungle?"

"The jungle's a nightmare." Johanna points out.

I see where she's going with this. "Probably here on the beach." I say.

"Then why are they not here?" Beetee asks us, clearly onto something.

"Because we are. We claimed it." The woman from the lumber District answers.

"And if we left, they would come." The man hypothesizes thoughtfully.

"Or stay hidden in the tree line." Finnick suggests.

"Which in just over four hours will be soaked with water from the ten o'clock wave." Beetee points out. "And what happens at midnight?"

"Lightning strikes that tree." Katniss looks up at him.

"Here's what I propose." He begins on his plan. "We leave the beach at dusk. We head to the lightning tree." He points at it. "That should draw them back to the beach. Prior to midnight, we then run this wire from the tree to the water. Anyone in the water or on the damp sand will be electrocuted."

_That's why he was messing with the sand! _I take a handful of it, slowly dumping it back down. I can feel the dampness he was talking about.

"How do we know the wire's not gonna burn up?" Johanna asks.

"Because I invented it." Beetee tells her. "I assure you, it won't burn up."

Johanna and Finnick exchange glances. Katniss watches the pair. She opens her mouth to speak, but the other woman beats her to it. "Well, it's better than hunting them down."

"Yeah, why not?" The girl on fire agrees, looking back to Beetee. "If it fails, no harm done anyway, right?"

I consider the idea. It'd certainly save us from further injury or casualties- neither of which we need. "Alright, I say we try it."

"So what can we do to help?" Finnick asks the electrician.

"Keep me alive for the next six hours." He answers, as if that part wasn't obvious. "That would be extremely helpful."

Nothing more to be said, our small group disperses. Finnick heads back to the waves, spinning his trident around. I walk a short way off and sit down in the sand, watching him and the water. Katniss wanders in my direction and ends up sitting next to me in the sand. We watch as Beetee points and explains something to Johanna.

I glance away from them, sighing, looking towards the sunset. It's the only light. Everything else is much darker, the shadows covering every extent of the land I can see. I look back down at the sand between my legs.

"I think we need to go." Katniss says it out of the blue.

"This plan's gonna work." I tell her, looking up again. I can feel that the plan will. I'm not just saying it to reassure her.

"I think so too." She tells me. "And once the Careers are dead, we both know what happens next. I don't want to be the one that shoots first."

_Sweetheart, you have no idea what's going to happen next. You don't know the origin of this alliance. _"What if they don't either?" I suggest. "What if all of us refuse to shoot first?"

"We might still end up dead." The girl points out.

_Maybe. _I put up a good act disagreeing. "Maybe not. It worked for you and Peeta last time. If that boy truly loves you, sweetheart, you're not going to die. And I don't think he's ready for his only mentor to die either."

She shakes her head. "They're not gonna make that same mistake again. You know and I know that there's only one person walking out of here. And it's gonna be one of us."

_If the plan goes wrong, then yes. _But I'm confident that somehow it'll work. And it also scares me. Nothing ever goes right. Something bad'll happen even if it works. I close my eyes for a moment. "The Careers are still out there." I shake my head. "We should stick with these guys till midnight. And if we hear a cannon, we go." I know that I probably won't do what I just told her anyway. We _have _to stick with these guys. They're the only way any of this will work. Another part of me feels that this night is going to be more important than we think it is. Worry settles into my gut. Something's going to go wrong, I know it. I look back at Katniss. She nods reluctantly. "You're not the only one I made deals with."

"What do you mean?" Katniss asks me, confused.

"Peeta- he made me promise to get you out alive. I kept him out of the Games for you. He's not happy that he can't be here with you, I'll tell you that. But you know what he told me?"

"What'd he say?"

"'If she dies, I have nothing. Nobody else that I care about. It's different for Katniss; her family needs her.'" I quote him, word for word. I take the golden ring off of my finger. I hand it to her. "He wanted me to give this to you, as part of your wedding gift." I stick with the act. Well, it's partially true. I remember him coming to me one night and telling me to give her my token and refer something that matters to her- so I chose him.

"Peeta." She murmurs, gazing at the ring in her palm.

"You have to live; for your family and for that boy." I say.

"What about you, Haymitch?" The girl on fire asks me.

I give a humorless chuckle. "All I'm needed for is to train people to kill and to survive. Nothing more, nothing less." It's true, and it hurts. That's why her next words surprise me.

"Do you really believe that?" I glance at her as she speaks up. "Haymitch, you're more than a killer and trainer. You're the reason I'm still sane in all this. _I _need you, Haymitch."

Our eyes meet and I see the truth in her gaze. _So, I'm more than a drunk to someone after all._

"Alright, Twelve!" Johanna's voice rings out, breaking the silence.

I turn to look at her. She's walking up the beach towards Beetee. Then it dawns on me that it's dusk; time to set the plan in motion. I glance back at Katniss for a moment, before getting up to meet with the others. I hear her follow me. I remember talking to Plutarch on the last Victory Tour. I told him to look out for a signal to send out the hovercrafts- to pick us and the tributes' families up. I hope he knows that now's the time.

We travel through the jungle, climbing up some rocks, when the anthem begins to echo in the air. We turn to gaze at the night sky. Cashmere, Gloss, Wiress, Mags, the woman from Five, the female morphling, Blight, and Chaff's faces are shown. The image fades from the sky and the others start to trek on again. I hesitate, giving myself a moment to grieve for my long time friend. _Miss you already, Chaff. Hope it didn't hurt too much. _

I turn and began following the others again. Johanna lets me pass her. We continue through the jungle for awhile, before we enter a small clearing surrounding the lightning tree.

Beetee pauses to observe what he has to work with. "Minimal charring. It's an impressive conductor." He notes. Then he walks up to the tree. "Let's get started." He wounds a lot of the wire around the tree. "Typically a lightning strike contains five billion joules of energy. We don't want to be anywhere in the vicinity when this hits." He leans down and grabs the coil. He addresses Katniss and Johanna. "You two girls, go together now. Take this. Unspool it carefully. Make sure the entire coil is in the water. You understand? Then head to the tree at the two o'clock sector. We'll meet you there."

"I'll go with them as a guard." I offer.

"No, no, no. You're staying here to protect me. And the tree." Beetee reminds me. "There are _two _Careers out there. I need _two _guards."

I'm too exhausted to argue, simply nodding in consent. Besides, if I went with her, since tonight is _the _night, I don't want to be the one to cut out her tracker. And I'm certain that it'd more than please Johanna to do it- I can only hope cutting out Katniss' tracker is all she does.

"Why can't Finnick and Johanna stay with you and Haymitch and I'll take the coil?" Katniss demands. Clearly she wants to be with someone she trusts.

"You all agreed to keep me alive until midnight, correct?" The man stalks up to her, glaring at her.

"It's _his _plan. We all agreed to it." Johanna tells Katniss.

"Is there a problem here?" Finnick asks, glancing over at my District member.

_Yes._

"Excellent question." Beetee comments, glancing back the the girl before him.

"No. There's no problem." Katniss wisely says. I'm proud of her for it, but annoyed with her at the same time for arguing to begin with.

She glances at me and gives a nod similar to that I gave her at the Reaping. I return it.

"It'll be fine." I assure her.

"I hope you're right, Haymitch."

"Alright, let's go!" Johanna says impatiently.

I watch as the two girls grab the coil and head off into the trees. I pray it works out, but the feeling of doom won't leave my gut. As the girls vanish from sight, I grab one of my two knives- I'd left the third at the cornucopia- and force it into my unresponsive left hand. I take the other knife in my right hand. _It'll be fine. It'll be fine…_

I warily eye the bushes, pacing back and forth to keep my mind alert. My right palm is sweaty from both nervousness and the heat. Finnick sits down on the ground, head on his arms, which rested on his knees. His eyes observed all within is peripheral vision. Beetee fidgets with the wire, as if to make sure the girls weren't pulling it off instead of unravelling the coil.

_One attempts to tear the knife from her eye, but the whole eyeball comes out. Blood pours from the socket as she throws the knife away. It's painful to watch. I pull a smaller knife from my belt, getting into a defensive stance. She draws a knife of her own._

_She leaps at me and our knives lock. I break free and we clash some, before locking blades again. Before I know what's happening, her knife slips free below mine. A sharp pain fills my lower torso; my gut. I feel the blade get dragged a little and the new wound tear bigger. I drop my own knife and it doesn't even take a moment for me to realize how bad this situation is._

_I tear myself free and hold an arm over the large wound as I scramble towards the blowtorched thorn bushes. _They're my only hope- only chance- at surviving this now. _I hear her grunt as she leans over to grab her axe again. I drag myself under the bushes as quickly and painlessly as possible and get to my feet on the other side. I make it to the edge of the rocky cliff. That's when I turn around and see her._

_She throws the axe at me just as my legs give out. I collapse onto my side and the weapon flies over me. My hands fall limply to the stone and I can feel my intestines shift abnormally. I realize what's about to happen seconds before I hear the axe coming back. I smirk wearily, weakly. I see the flash of metal fly over me and I close my eyes just as the sound of the weapon hitting flesh fills the air. The cannon sounds and I know the Career's own axe killed her._

_And I know that I survived. With that thought in mind, I let the darkness take me._

I shake my head violently, not wanting to relive the last Quell now. I need to stay on the lookout- I need to watch for the Careers.

A scream rings out in the silence of the night. Katniss. I pray it's only Johanna cutting out her tracker. I hear Johanna shout a battle cry. Then everything falls silent again. Dread fills me again. I look to see Finnick standing on his feet, trident tight in his hand.

"Go!" I tell him. "They won't come here. I'll stay guard just in case. You help Katniss and Johanna!"

He takes off with a loud,"Johanna, where are you?!"

Beetee looks at me. "I'll be fine, you should go help them too. Like you said, the Careers won't come here."

I nod quickly, thankful that he's letting me go. Heart heavy, I race off into the trees. I can hear running in the distance. I head in that direction, glimpsing the forms of Brutus and Enobaria in front of me. I throw my knife lightning fast. It digs into the back of the male's skull. The cannon sounds an he falls over, dead. Enobaria glances back and sees me. She takes off into the trees. _What's she to fear? It's only me, with _one _usable arm._

"Finnick!" Johanna's voice comes from ahead, answering my question.

"Johanna!" I call, running up the slope before me.

"Abernathy!" She sounds relieved, turning from where she'd been running to.

She walks up to me, and I sigh in relief myself. Then something hits me. "Where's Katniss?"

"Back where I left her." She replies. "I cut out her tracker, just like we planned. Then I ran off into the trees to draw the Careers away from her."

"Well, let's go find her!" I say, turning around to head back the other way.

We've just reached the location of where the anthem played- where Katniss had been- when I hear an explosion. It came from the lightning tree. Horror fills me and I know that something happened with the wire.

"KATNISS, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Finnick screams. He's silent for a moment. "Katniss! Remember who the real enemy is!"

A crackle splits the air as the lightning prepares to strike the tree. I glance at Johanna, panicking. _Shit. If she's near the tree, then… _Her eyes reflect how I feel.

"We need to get away from the tree!" She says.

"What about Katniss?" I ask, torn.

"It's too late!" The woman shouts. "She's too close to get away from the tree in time. Finnick and Beetee too. Abernathy, we have to get away while we still can!"

My heart pounds in my chest. She's right and it hurts- hurts to know I've failed a chance at what started at the end of the last Games. My voice shakes ever so slightly. "Okay. Let's go."

"Katniss, get away from that tree!" Finnick's voice grows distant as Johanna and I take off towards the treeline, not waiting around for the lightning to strike. "KATNISS, GET AWAY FROM THAT TREE!"

I hear a female scream muddled with the first blast of lightning. Finnick's scream follows soon after. My heart sinks and I know that I've failed. _You idiot! You had one chance and you've gone and messed it up! Why couldn't you have found the girl before Johanna? You could've stopped this, Haymitch!_

A loud boom that reminded me of Katniss' arrow hitting the forcefield a couple days ago echoed twice as loud through the arena. I look up to see the wire attached to an arrow. It had hit the top of the dome. The stars and night sky vanished, leaving a void of blackness. I can only imagine what happened in the Gamemakers' room, back in the Capitol.

The first chunk of the metal forcefield peels off slowly, revealing real daylight. The metal falls down into the arena, somewhere by the lightning tree. More chunks began to detach from the rest, collapsing in on the arena. I can see a fire start up near the large tree. And I doubt there's hope for the three tributes left behind- and for the remaining Career. _I'm so sorry, Katniss. Don't hate me for this._

I can see a hovercraft lower into the arena, a claw hanging down and extending down. I don't know whether it's Plutarch or the Capitol grabbing Katniss. I can make out her form as she's lifted up, limbs limp. I can see the blood on her arm where Johanna cut out her tracker. Her body is pulled inside and the claw drops down to grab another body. I stop watching the arena crumble and keep racing after Johanna- the last survivor of the alliance.

With the arena falling apart, the lightning doesn't strike again. A tiny sliver of hope at surviving rises inside of me. If we could reach the beach, we could possibly make it until Plutarch got here and picked us up. This thought fuels me to keep running.

The falling ceiling catches up with us. Soon, a fire springs up from the brush behind us. A small tree gets hit by a chunk of the metal and manages to fall onto Johanna, knocking her unconscious. Not wanting my guilt to go any further, I stop and attempt to help her. I use my good arm to pull the tree off of her and then grab her, throwing her over my shoulder.

I continue to stumble along, but the fire has already caught up. It gets ahead of me, but I keep going. _At least I'll die with the honor of trying to save Johanna._ I reach the beach, but there's large burning chunks of the arena's structure on it too. I use my right arm to move my left one into a position to hold onto the young woman, and use the right one to protect my eyes from the fire.

My legs give out as I reach the water. I place Johanna on it in a way that she'll float and Iwade out as far as I can. By now, the water has been exposed to the daylight and I look up. I can see a second hovercraft descending over me. _So, this is it then. The games end with Katniss destroying the arena and the survivors being collected as if they're trophies…_

The claw extends from a hatch, reaching down towards me. I can't move far before it grabs me and starts ascending. It's about halfway there before I finally manage to crawl to the edge and flip myself out of it. I splash into the water and struggle to the surface again. Ropes emerge from the hovercraft and I know that Peacekeepers are about to come down. I head towards the sand again, knowing fending them off won't be easy in the water. I can't let them take me to the Capitol. I can't. Because then they'll use me as a weapon against the Districts.

I reach the beach, but I'm too late. I'm greeted with a punch to the face. I'm knocked onto my back, darkness claiming me. _These sure are some strange Games to play._


End file.
